Old macaw, new words?

[Kingarex]

I've got a 22 year old B&G. I'm his second owner and have had him over a year. He's happy, healthy and bonded to me and tolerant of my wife. He has a good vocabulary, but it's all old things (names of the previous owners, and daily words) we've been loosely trying to teach him things, but he doesn't mimic or even move his beak when we do New words. He just blankly stares back at me like I'm an idiot. So we got a little more serious about it but still no success.

I'm wondering if he's stubborn and uninterested in expanding?

 

[thekarens]

Birds pick up the words they are interested in usually, not the ones we necessarily want them to learn. A lot of times you can tell if they are interested if their eyes are pinning. Birds don't need to move their beak to talk.

I'd be patient and show excitement with the new words you want your bird to learn. Sometimes more excitement is more interesting to them.

 

[cstambaugh]

He just blankly stares back at me like I'm an idiot.

Cracked me up because I know exactly what you mean.
I've had my 10yr old GW for 3 months now and he does have a large vocabulary from his previous owner, but he has started to pick up a couple of little words of mine. I can tell in the accent difference that he says them in.

Its possible

 

[Lis]

I also have a 22 year old B&G that I adopted in Sept, I have just recently heard him making some different sounds and I think trying to say something when excited. I think it's possible.

 

[Kingarex]

Yeah his eyes pin sometimes but he doesn't move his beak like other birds I've had. I've heard nothing new, not even sounds in 18 months. We are working on "please" and his name. But nothing.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Does he respond to music, perhaps???? I can get my entire flock going in no time, depending on what music I put on.

 

[Kingarex]

Oh sure, he Bob's and makes kiss sounds. I can occasionally get him to use "rare" words. But nothing new.

 

[MikeyTN]

When you concentrate so hard on making them speak they're gonna do the opposite. I don't push my birds to talk. The past few days I've been home sick with the flu so I'm laying on the couch to listen to Willie and Lola yap their beaks off all afternoon. All things they learned here. But we've had Willie for 10 years but Lola have been here for 6 months. But she's only 3 going on 4 years old. Willie is 12 years old. But I feel if you don't expect them to say it and just have fun with them, you'd be amazed what they blurt out when you least expected.

 

[palmetto941]

Simba started chattering to himself when he moved in.....the more I ignored him the more the chattered.....now he's rarely quiet. If old words doesn't get our attention he'll try a new one. We turned on some classic rock n roll on one day and he would sing fa la lalalala with his favorites....and try to carry the tune....lol Yep, that was the day that peace n quiet left....and the fun began!!!!

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Whats funny with these rehomes [is you never know what their going to say!]. You figure he has 21 years of stuff he might be holding back. Developing relationships can take such a long time. Im sure this is something to do with the amount of time you had him. I used to be all about doing everything to encourage mine to talk. Now I focus on building my relationship with them[and that's when things really started to happen.]

 

[Chesphoto]

Whats funny with these rehomes [is you never know what their going to say!]

Haha, so true. Skittles is not a big talker, but does say "cracker, step up, hi, hello, snuggle baby and yum"

My wife meet a lady at who was supposed to be a bird whisperer. She told my wife to have me bring Skittles in and she would be able to tell us for sure if she really was a girl and how she could make her friendly to the rest of the family.

So I bring her in and the lady starts yelling at Skittles because she wouldn't step up. All of a sudden, Skittles says "shut up" and bites the lady. I felt bad, but also thought that for a bird whisperer, this lady sucked...

 

[Chesphoto]

Oh, Skittles has also said "hurts so good"

Yeah, not sure about that one...

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Whats funny with these rehomes [is you never know what their going to say!]

Haha, so true. Skittles is not a big talker, but does say "cracker, step up, hi, hello, snuggle baby and yum"

My wife meet a lady at who was supposed to be a bird whisperer. She told my wife to have me bring Skittles in and she would be able to tell us for sure if she really was a girl and how she could make her friendly to the rest of the family.

So I bring her in and the lady starts yelling at Skittles because she wouldn't step up. All of a sudden, Skittles says "shut up" and bites the lady. I felt bad, but also thought that for a bird whisperer, this lady sucked...

Ha ha !! OMG So funny I honestly wasn't expecting to read that [ thanks for the smirk Skittles]