Poll just how much does your quaker talk!

[Laurasea]

Hi quaker people,
I'm still a new quaker keeper. I got Neptune Blue at seven weeks, on June 23. I had read they are big talkers, so how much do your Quaker's talk?? I am surprised that Neptune is already up to ten phrases, and about five individual words. He reapeats them continually (tho not always clearly) for about six hours a day! But he waits to surprise me with new ones untill I'm holding him and he can look in my eyes as he drops his new word or phrase! So I wanted to hear from real quaker owners and not from reading books. How many words and phrases do yours speak?

 

[alleng8304]

you are lucky. My rescue adult knows about 10 words and phrases. I am trying to teach him new words after I have had him 2 months but no such luck. Depends on the bird

 

[cnyguy]

Ralph knows about 30 words and 10 phrases, but he doesn't use them often. He's not a talkative parrot. Some of the words he only whispers along with me when I say them. The ones he says aloud most often are water, good parrot, pretty bird, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, funny Quaker and where's that parrot?

 

[Laurasea]

It's funny what they pick up on. I've been trying to get him to say what's the word bird a bazillion times, no luck yet.. but he was clipped severly before I got him and before he fledgled (so wrong) so he crashes to the ground and I ask are you ok, so now he askes me that if I drop something. I said oatmeal like three times in his life he can say that, once he said something weird that sounded like Pinocchio so I said Pinocchio? Now he randomly shouts Pinocchio! But what's the word bird lol nada.. Ive read they can learn five hundred words!!!! So I wondered if that's true, or common.. I'm happy he talks, but on the flip side it's loud and repeated for hours and hours. I wonder if it's because he is so young and if it's something he will out grow? Allen it's so wonderful that you took on an older parrot!! I hope he graces you with some new words!

 

[john8terry]

Hi quaker people,

I'm still a new quaker keeper. I got Neptune Blue at seven weeks, on June 23. I had read they are big talkers, so how much do your Quaker's talk?? I am surprised that Neptune is already up to ten phrases, and about five individual words. He reapeats them continually (tho not always clearly) for about six hours a day! But he waits to surprise me with new ones untill I'm holding him and he can look in my eyes as he drops his new word or phrase! So I wanted to hear from real quaker owners and not from reading books. How many words and phrases do yours speak?

Consuela, my QP, started talking at 6mos. but I work/play with her a couple of hours every day. She is almost 7mos. and is turning into a real motormouth; peek-a-boo, I'm so cute, step up?, kissy-kissy, and a bunch of birdy-babble.
Two things: Don't get frustrated and no more than 3 syllables at a time.
Consuela's C.A.V.(certified avian veterinarian) has a QP (Thank you, Lord!) that didn't start talking until a year old. I guess it really does depend on the bird.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

 

[ParrotGenie]

The quaker we had named Kiki a few years ago she knew about 35 words and some phases. She was a good talker.

 

[Laurasea]

I love me some quakers! Neptune was beaking me, and accidentally pinched to hard, I said ouch! He he said ahh o ( I don't know how you spell) it was his equivalent of sorry. Btw a bazillion more what's the word bird, still hasn't said it back lol...what's up said ten times now he can say that

 

[Allee]

My girl, Harry was the first quaker to move in and the first bird of my current flock. I was blown away by her language skills, our next quaker was Zeke who could only say a few words when he joined us, Harry spent many hours teaching Zeke the words she knew, it was fascinating to hear them, Zeke became a lot more talkative with Harry’s help. Our next quaker was an adult male and again Harry insisted the new kid brush up his speaking skills. I brought baby Wilson home and he said his first words clearly before he was completely weaned. The three of them talk constantly, they talk to every human they have contact with, they say please and thank you, good morning, good night, come here, be a good boy/girl, How are you?, Whaaattt?, Did you do that?, I like that, I’m cold, Stop, Hush, Who is that?, Come out, Close the door, Turn it up, Turn it off..... If one of them meows, barks, cries or quacks, the others do to, we don’t have a cat, a baby or a duck. Sam has several phrases that Harry and Wilson never say, Nite, nite, precious, Don’t bite Momma, I love you sooo much, I want a cookie (he never gets cookies but he calls all treats cookies), water ( from a spray bottle, he loves baths), he says, Want to play, Don’t fly away (as he flies away) and my favorite, You are a quaker parrot, hahaha. Harry also has a few phrases and words of her own that the males don’t say, she tells me often, You’re wearing me out, and, You are a good, good girl, and when she’s happy with me she calls me, Hey Girl, she has a few other phrases I’d rather not mention here. I kept a notebook with a list of words each quaker could say clearly for a while but I gave up the practice when the lists grew too long to keep up with.

I never thought I’d take our quakers’ talent for communication for granted but honestly we’ve all become so accustomed to quaker language we talk to them as if it’s perfectly normal to have conversations with birds. Occasionally when someone meets them for the first time and the quakers demonstrate their skills, the expressions on the guests’ faces remind me how fortunate we are to have quaker family members. I’ve always said quakers learn to speak so they are better able to argue with humans. Our Amazon and African Grey have amazing vocabularies too but this is about quakers.

I really think quakers are more inclined to talk because in the wild they are a unique parrot species, the only parrot species to build community nests with sticks, the males guard the nests, they have incredible communication skills, in the wild, it’s a survival mechanism. Texas has multiple colonies of wild quakers, I’ve read a couple of accounts of observers hearing the quakers speak a few English words to each other, we can assume, a pet quaker who escaped his home and joined the colony decided to use his words and taught them to his wild relatives.

Conclusion, parrot language is contagious, it evolves within a flock, no matter where the flock makes it’s home. If you want your parrots to talk, talk to them, all parrots have the ability to speak. Remember though, some birds like some humans prefer not to speak often or at all, that just means they communicate in other amazing ways.

 

[Gaiuz]

My quaker parrot is not a big talker, but he has picked up a few words by now ^^ i still don’t know exactly how old he is, but he should be about 1 year old. He can say ciao (italian word for ”hello”), cucù (peek-a-boo), sù (up), giù (down), a bunch of different kissing noises and general goofy noises lol.
He is a slow learner haha
But hey he has rithm and kind of sings along with me ^_^

 

[EllenD]

Lita will be 4 years-old in July, and I brought her home from her breeder when she was 10 weeks-old...She's a DNA-confirmed female Blue Quaker...

Lita started talking when she was right around a year old, and it was obvious that she was mimicking Bowie, my male Green Cheek, as I brought Bowie home when he was 13 weeks-old and when Lita was around 9-months old...So after having Bowie for about 3-months he started talking fluently and clearly, and Lita then started to try to mimic him, not me....

Lita can say 5-10 different words and 3 phrases total, but her voice is not clear, it's "garbled" and sounds like she's mumbling...I can understand her, but that's about it, and based on my experience over the years at the Rescue with many Quaker Parrots, I gotta assume that the reason isn't a big talker and the reason her voice is not at all clear is because she's a female...I'm basing this on the fact that most-all of the male Quakers that have come through the Rescue were huge talkers with large vocabularies and who spoke very, very clearly; on the flip-side, the female Quakers who have come through the Rescue were never good talkers, or talkers at all most of the time...

Of course there are always exceptions to everything...

 

[flyingron]

We don't know how old Bacca is. We've had her for three years and the previous owner had her for four. She at one time was very talkative (she'd say "good bird", "Bacca", "bye bye", "OK"). She's less interested in talking now. Mostly I think she's spoiled. The one that she loves is "BEAK!" Which is accompanied by her bumping your nose with her beak. She'll make that noise when she wants attention.

On the other hand, she loves sound effects. If I tap on the table to get her attention, she'll make tapping noises. When walking across the kitchen floor, I'll notice she's doubling the squeaking sounds my shoes are making. Her absolute favorite is the sound of a zipper being zipped. All you need to do is have something with a zipper and she'll start making it. Amusingly, when my wife pulls her pants up, Bacca makes the zipper noise, even if Margy's wearing yoga pants. She'll also mimick my wife's kissy noises.

One day I was replacing smoke detector batteries and found that Bacca was standing on my shoulder making the battery dying chirps. We live on an airport, and Bacca makes airplane noises when planes go by. She'll even make the noise when she sees our neighbor's airplane parked.

 

[sandeejs]

Gordon can be quite the talker. He orders me around at times. When I come home: "Wanna come out". When I or the birdy sitter tick him off, he says: "Go to bed." He'll say "fresh water" any time I go into the fridge; he wants a pumpkin seed. Also "spiqua". I think that means thank you. "No bite" means he just bit me and I criticized him. "Gotta take a bath" sometimes means what he says, sometimes means he's gonna dump the water on the floor. When I say "little green" he finishes with "CHICKEN!"