by Wolf » Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:54 am
First off, some birds will not talk, although no one knows why. Some birds that are capable of speech, and yours is, will only talk when no one is around and are known as closet talkers.
I don't know if Melody will ever talk, but my guess at this point is that she won't. There are things that you can do to encourage talking, but there are no guarantees.
Repeating the same word or phrase over and over will help. But after each time you say the word you need to leave a space for Melody to say it back to you, before you say it again. You also have to listen very closely to see if she tries to say it, although at first it won't sound like a word, if she is trying she will make a noise and if she tries then reward her. Never make any training session last for more than 15 minutes at a time. When training her always find a way to give her the treat, if she doesn't do the thing or doesn't try to at the end of the session get her to do something that she knows how to do so that she gets the treat. ALWAYS. While 15 minutes is long enough, you can do this many times in a day and if you want it to happen you can never give up on her.
Birds that talk also learn to do it because they are always exposed to people talking, they tend to pick up on words that are spoken with a lot of emphasis, kind of like when two people get into an argument and get a bit emotional, they also pick up on words that are spoken with a rhythm, sort of like singing the word. Birds for some reason love drama so if the word is spoken with this in mind it will also encourage them to repeat it.
That about sums up what I know about this topic. Oh! One other thing, Copying another bird. This may also help, on you tube look up Disco, the talking budgie and watch Disco with Melody.
I hope this will help you.