Yellow nape amazon parrot?[help please]?

Question

well i've have a yellow nape amazon parrot for two years now, i'm not sure how old it is because the lady at the pet store didn't know either.

is it more difficult teaching an older parrot to talk?we've tried everything to teach it how to talk but it seems to talk more to my father and when i try to talk to the parrot it talks but not as much as with my dad because my dad can pet it and everything but my mom and i cant

Answer 1

Some parrots bond with one person.  This may be the case in your home.  You need to take your time and let the bird get used to you on its own terms.

Answer 2

Your father has found out the secret. In order for your parrot to want to mimic you, you need to gain the birds trust. Once he trusts you he will desire to interact with you. Your father can get the bird out and help you with the bird until he totally accepts you and doesn't try to harm you. I have 8 Yellow Napes. They can do great damage with their beaks. I have a friend who lost his eye to a Yellow Nape sitting on his shoulder.

Yellow Nape Amazons are fantastic talkers and singers. They have the ability to learn words their entire life. Just as every Amazon parrot has it's own personality the also have different learning abilities.

Most of my babies are talking by the time they are 8-12 weeks old. The last babies from one pair of my YN's are saying several words by the time they are 8 weeks old. When they were 16 weeks old they were singing, I Left My Heart in San Fransisco and they each had about twenty words that they they could say.

Once you get a Yellow Nape interacting with with you they will learn  at a very good rate. You can use audio tapes also. I would remind you that birds key into the excitement in the word. If you use a lot of  emotion in your words they will key in on that. That is why most birds pick up foul words so quickly. Most of the time they are said with much excitement in the pronuciation. Remember this and your bird will learn much faster. Don't try to train for more than 10 to 15 minutes. They are like children and don't have much of a attention span. Try to work with them in a environment that has few distractions when training. For speech training you can leave them in the cage. I have found that it is more important for no distractions with trick training. They will learn to talk most of the time if you don't even take them from their cage. I have never ever heard of a Yellow Nape Amazon that won't talk.

A veterinarian can give an estimate of the parrots age by looking at the scales on their feet and other things. An older bird will have rough scales and a younger bird will have smoother scales. (It won't be exact but at least you will have an idea.)