teaching greenwing to talk

[macy07]

Hello!
I have a 7 month old greenwing and have many questions. I will address them as they come to my mind. Right now I was wondering what is the best age to start training her to talk or to do small tasks. I have read that males are generally better talkers but do females learn to talk a little? Also, when they are at the age to train, what is a successful method. Is it as simple as just repeating words over and over again? I welcome any knowledge anyone has about these birds.
Thanks a million
Macy07

[Irish]

All of my macaws started talking by 5 months of age. They just naturally picked up words that they heard a lot ("step up", "easy", "I love you", "NO BITE!", "be nice to the Mama", "Want some?", etc.). Macaws are Drama Queens, every single one of them, so they really pay attention to, and quickly learn to say, anything you say in an excited (or angry) tone of voice. The more drama with the voice, the better. So that means you have to think about what you say around them if you don't want them to pick up unacceptable words :-). They will also eventually learn to make up sentences that make contextual sense.

I don't know if females talk better or worse than males, as I only have males.

Bob learned "dead bird" almost immediately. "Step up" was learned before they even fledged or weaned". With the right methods and consistency, I'd think that macaws can learn just about anything from a fairly young age.

Congratulations on your baby GW girl. My Arthur is a lot of fun :-).

[Copper]

My 5 year old suprises me quite often. My 16 year old is starting new words too, and I just have to laugh when they come out.
As Irish said... the more drama you can put into an expression, the faster they pick it up.