How long must I live with this African grey parrot?

Question

I Brought this bird a few months after my wife and I got married. Will be celebrating our 26th Anniversary this Nov. And it will only meow and bark like a dog. Do you think it will ever speak English?? We talk to it daily.

Answer 1

i will give it a good home

e mail me!

Answer 2

who cares if it doesnt speak english. But i am sure if it can bark it can say hello just when you walk past him when he is out say hello. Thats how i got my parakeets to say hello. And african greys have the intelegence of a three year old so if my parakeets can do it your african grey can do it.

Answer 3

These birds usually live 40+ years.  

Answer 4

It may never talk, but there are definitely training programs that would help him.

You may need to interact with him more than the cat and dog do.

Check the internet for Chet Womach's training stuff. He actually does some pretty incredible stuff - and it's reasonably priced. Any aged bird - especially a grey can and WILL learn, with the right training! :)

Answer 5

well, these birds live around 50 years and you should have done your homework about it before you got one. its probably a female, therefor it wont talk a whole bunch like some of those famous males. spending lots of time with it will help you build a bond and if the bird trusts you it will be more likely to mimic you and learn to talk. but please, let it out of its cage for at least 3 hours during the day. if you don't play with, bond with, or let this bird out of its cage then that will just make more problems for you. some problems include cage aggressiveness, just aggressiveness itself,never talking, and a lot more. probably the most likely thing to happen is feather plucking. it is very common in african greys and is a big issue. it happens when the bird is bored, stressed, or unhappy with a situation. it is hard to cure and very sad. what I'm guessing by your attitude about the situation at the moment is that this bird will soon not get the attention it needs, start to pluck its feathers, you wont want it anymore and nobody will take it because it is plucked, so then you will drop it off at some animal  rescue and then it will be put up for adoption but nobody will adopt it because nobody wants a partial bald bird and then it will either spend the rest of its life at the shelter until it dies there, or it will get euthanized after months of nobody wanting it. so if you don't want your feathered friend to end up like the bird below then i suggest you turn your attitude around and love that bird for who it is and care for it correctly. i don't mean to offend anybody, but i just want people to realize the reality of what will happen if you don't care for an animal correctly.

http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/display...

http://www.allcreaturesah.com/Chucka.JPG

Answer 6

If you have gad the bird for  26 yrs and it is not talking it will never talk. I have two Grey's and they both talk lots.  They are the Congo Grey's and talk better than the Timnehs do. They can live longer than you do, some over 70 years.  Depends on how well you take care of them.  you can tell the Congo's from the Timnehs  , the Congo Grey's have a bright red tail, and the Timneh a  dark reddish gray. If  they are going to talk it would be in the first year of their lifes. And if it has not laid eggs it is a male.

Answer 7

Well your question deserves several answers.

First, it is not uncommon for an African Grey to live as much as 70 or 80 years. So if you are hoping that it will die soon , it would seem you are out of luck.

Second, you say that you "talk to it daily." Exactly how many hours every day do you sit down beside his cage and talk to this bird? Training a mature Grey to speak will most likely take a minimum of 2 continuous hours every day to get him talking, and even then there is no guarantee. But, as a responsible bird owner , you no doubt are aware that you need to devote at least one to two hours every day to your bird. This is essential to his happiness and emotional well being. Your Parrot has the intelligence and emotions of a 4 year old human child, and needs just as much love and attention as a child would need. A child who feels unloved often responds by not talking.

Third, what exact routines do you do to teach your bird specific words and phrases? You must repeat the exact same thing to your bird in the exact same circumstances many times before he will get the idea. If you change your wording, or are inconsistent then the bird will find it very difficult. For instance, when putting the bird back into his cage for the night, we always say "Nite, nite." We never change it to "Goodnight" or "See you tomorrow." therefore our Quaker parrot now says "Nite nite" when we put him away.

Of course if you start the bird talking he may begin to pick up words much faster and entirely on his own. That is when you have to start watching your language and what you say about friends or neighbors! But that stage usually only occurs after the bird has been taught that talking is fun.

Training a bird to talk can take many years of dedicated work, just like teaching a child to talk. That is why Parrots with large vocabularies sell for such high prices. If is was easy, nobody would pay extra for talking birds.

Lastly, have you trained the bird to do "Step Up"? Have you trained him to be friendly with strangers( sitting on their hand or shoulders)? Does he come to you on command? And how many hours a day do you have him out of the cage with you? These are all indicators of his degree of trust . A bird who does not trust you will never be trained to do anything at all. You must establish a program of trust and then reenforce it with a training program so that the bird knows that certain things are expected of him. Without trust and continous training your bird will never feel the need to talk to you.

Your opening question seems to show an irritation toward this bird. But have you ever asked that your cat talk? If not, then why do you expect the bird to talk? Any animal can be trained, but you have to be willing to put in a great deal of effort. In the case of a Parrot this effort can take years or even decades . If you love your bird and want him to talk so that you and he can have a fuller relationship, then please do some research on the Net and start a dedicated training program. If , on the other hand, you somehow feel that your bird has some sort of obligation to speak, and you are angry about this, then I suggest you reevaluate your relationship with this bird and ask yourself if you really want him. Anger can be sensed by birds , who are very perceptive. If you really love your bird, please be willing to change your attitudes as well as his!

Good luck

Answer 8

Sounds like you have a female there. You will ive with it as long as you own it or it dies or you dies first. If it's a female then it may be limited as to talking like most breeds of birds we enjoy owning. As for english, who knows? I once owned a spanish speaking quaker LOL!