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Why do Greys...

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Why do Greys...

Postby GreenWing » Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:39 pm

Say words only THEY want to learn? :mrgreen:

Now, Chance has a very large vocab. She says sentences. It's very impressive. She says a lot of words, even in another language :lol:

BUT for the longest time, I have tried to teach her to say the word "eat." She. Won't. Say. It.

She LOVES food. You win this bird's heart by cooking. So she watches me cook and makes smacking sounds and says "Mmmmm!" which is really cute, and she gets excited when I say "eat" but SHE won't say "eat."

Does anyone know why? Why is she opposed to saying this one word which she understands, loves to do, but will not say it herself?
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Wolf » Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:42 pm

Very good question! Not one that I am certain that I or anyone else has a good answer to.

I have noted that my birds are more likely to repeat words that are sort of sung to them, or words that are spoken excitedly or with a great deal of emotion and perhaps volume. Other than that I really can't say. I have repeatedly said " Good Morning" to my birds for the past three to four years, but not a single one of them has picked it up yet.

I have had success in getting Mimi, Amazon, to say " Peek a boo" and " I see you" by making it a game, which it is any way, but that is just about all so far.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby liz » Mon Sep 12, 2016 5:12 am

They are stubborn little children.
Mine insist on saying hello and not good morning. I have tried for 5 years to get them to say "hey baby whatsup". The will say "hey baby" and whatsup" but will not put it together. Just like children they learn new words every day even if they do not use them. I believe that Rambo and Myrtle know most of what I say and are able to use the same words. They keep them secret. It is always a surprise when they need the words to tell me something and let some new words loose at high speed.
They are little sponges and keep soaking things up until they need them.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby ParrotsForLife » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:51 am

Tiko will learn things we want to teach her so I wouldn't say specifically all Greys lol, She normally just picks up a lot of things we say and in good context.She would call you down for dinner in my mams voice and lots of other things.She makes up her own sentences too.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Pajarita » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:23 am

That's the way they are! All my birds understand the phrases I use before I give them their food and even specific items like "peanuts" -which, to them, means all nuts and seeds; "cookie" -which are birdy cookies I make for them; "pan" -for birdybread; "water" for water, etc. but the only one that has a word -actually, a phrase- for food in general is the male Senegal which says "Eat it!" for it so, when I am getting ready to serve their breakfast, for example, I start walking toward their cages with their bowls in my hands and start saying the usual: "UUUUUhhhh, LOOK LOOK LOOK! Que rica papa! Here we go! Mmmmm" (actually, Precie YFA, says the whole thing along with me and she even adds "LOVE IT!" LOL), he flies after me saying "Eat it!" which he did not learn from me but from his previous home but which I reinforce by repeating it at the right time.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Loriusgarrulus » Fri Jan 06, 2017 2:57 pm

I always tried to get my husbands greys to say "pieces of eight"
I also tried teaching it to my chattering lory who is an excellent talker.
None of them will say it.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jan 07, 2017 3:34 pm

But say a bad word once or make a bad noise and they will learn it right away! :lol:
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby ParrotsForLife » Sat Jan 07, 2017 4:12 pm

Pajarita wrote:But say a bad word once or make a bad noise and they will learn it right away! :lol:

Tiko knew not to say bad words so even when she learned the F word she never said it again when we told her thats a bad word.
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Bird woman » Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:20 pm

I took in a grey about 15 years ago that was willed to me by a lady in a bike Club that comes into the Resturant , she knew I took in birds and told her friends to take the bird to me if anything happened to her. It was her husbands bird of 20 years and he got killed on a bike ride and then she died of COPD YEARS LATER. Well unbeknownst to me here comes the biker bird with a mouth that puts Ozzie Ozbourns to shame. Well I had very young grandkids at the time so everytime he cut loose with the bad words and sentences I'd tell him he was a potty mouth and cover him up for 15 good minutes. Well now if she starts with any phrase or bad word you just have to say potty mouth and she says acceptable things. She since has a new home in the upper east side with all the eminities and is spoiled rotten. Notice Casper is now casperilla or Cassie the bird got DNA'd by her new mommy :lol: all these years being thought of as a boy :roll: geeezes. BW. She will always be my little tomboy :danicing:
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Re: Why do Greys...

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jan 08, 2017 2:15 pm

I think that the best thing to do is to ignore them and just keep on repeating other things so they learn the new 'good' words instead of the bad ones. Pookey came to me saying just one thing and one thing alone: "F****K YOU!" in a man's angry voice. She was quite aggressive when she first came so I am thinking that this is what her previous owner said every time she bit him - but she no longer says it. Sophie came to me from a home where the husband was abusive (and one of the kids was developmentally disabled or something) and, although she did not say bad words, she did say things like: "NO! NO! STOP IT! YOU ARE MAKING IT WORSE!" "JUST LEAVE, RICK! PLEASE, JUST LEAVE!" "Ohhhh, Lord save us!" "Ohhhh, God help us!"
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