Parrotresearch.com- A Journey Into the Mind of A Talking Parrot
Contents
The Flock Factor
In this section, we are going to look at some of the reasons why it is much more difficult to train and teach more than one budgie at a time.
Budgies are very similar to people when learning to communicate. Most humans learn another language much quicker when they are forced to learn it. The same goes for budgies. They are an extremely social animal and will often bond with a human and try to speak our language. That is why they begin to mimic us. As soon as you introduce another budgie to the flock, then they will more often prefer to speak budgie language. The only time this changes is when the first budgie that learns to talk in the human language, is totally bonded to their trainer and becomes part of the trainer's flock. It takes at least one year for a budgie to get that bond and keep it.
Victor and other budgies have shown they can bond well enough to prefer English as their first language. I had Victor for more than two years before I introduced another budgie into the household. Because Victor’s main flock was people, his new mate Betty was forced to learn English to become accepted in his flock. However, after Victor died, it was only a few months before I brought home a new budgie companion for her. At less than one year old, she had not fully bonded. Then two more budgies arrived, and she had even more contact with bird language and less with people. At first she taught them what she could in the English, but it was not as extensive and clear as Victor. Within several months they all started reverting back to budgie language. However some of what they did learn from Betty is still recognizable in their speech. Presently they speak a combination of bird talk and English and often chirp the word out when they try to talk the human language.
If you think about it, humans are similar in the way we learn language as well. When immigrants come to a new country, many have to learn a new language. Some do it very quickly when exposed to the new language only. However, if they stay within a group that only speaks their first language, they may never learn fluently even after many years.
Perhaps, the only way to successfully train more than one budgie to talk at a time is to isolate them and get them to bond with a human first for an extensive period of time. This even becomes quite difficult because they know when there are other budgies in the home. They will resent the fact that you will not let them mingle with each other and may become defiant and non communicative. In my case I do not have the heart to separate them because this would cause them emotional stress as well. That was the main reason I acquired a mate for Betty so quickly.
We should also look at the amount of time one has to spend training them and bonding with them. When Victor was young I spent at least one hour a day teaching him to talk. He was constantly on me or near me and I would play with him for at least an hour a day. All in all, I would probably spend three to four hours a day with him. He had full run of the house and always came to me when he needed companionship.
After you have more than one budgie the "one on one" time you spend with each budgie decreases considerably, even if the first budgie is totally bonded. If you separate them to maintain that bond, you would have to spend three to four hours with each of them. If a budgie is bonded with you, it may also become very jealous of another budgie if you spend time with it instead.
Only about 3% of budgies bond well enough with humans to become good talkers. If you don't believe me watch Victor's "How Budgies Adapt" video and hear it straight from him. I will leave you a link at the end of this article. When there are two budgies, the chances for having a good talker decrease rapidly to less than ½ %. So you may get a budgie to say a few words when you have more than one budgie, but chances of it being a good talker are very slim.
If you already have a budgie that is fully bonded and talks well, and then bring in another budgie, your chances are much higher for the second budgie to learn to talk. You would most likely have a more than 75% chance of teaching the second budgie to talk and it would learn quickly. However, once you start introducing more, they may split and some may prefer to stick with their first language. It may depend on how well of a leader the first bonded budgie is and if the new members of the flock decide to become part of his/her flock.
Overall, the most important factors for teaching it to talk depends on how much time you spend with your budgie and how much you play with it. These two things usually determine how well it bonds with you and wants to become part of your human flock. I think many people find it very difficult to understand why they cannot get their budgie to talk. Especially those who have more than one. The main reason is they have not fully bonded with you and only you can get them gain trust in you.
In conclusion, I am not an advocate of keeping only one budgie for its entire life without ever letting it be with their own species. However, I do believe it is a good idea to make sure one is fully bonded before you get another one. Keep in mind, there is always the chance that it is not bonded well enough with you and you may lose your relationship once the other budgie arrives. The one year rule should take effect in most cases though.
Keep in mind that the percentages I talk about here come from my own experiences and collecting information from other budgie owners. They do not relate to interspecies flocks like budgies and amazons or budgies and cockatiels or other parrots.
Here is the link to the video of Victor where he talks about budgies adapting- How Budgies Adapt
You can see more of his videos at The Budgie Research Group Site. There you can see the complete text translations and explanations as well.
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Ryan Reynolds
Email ryan@parrotresearch.com
copyright Ryan Reynolds 2002
The Flock Factor
Barriers to Budgie Bonding
25 Aug.,2003
by Ryan B. Reynolds
Parrot Cognition Researcher & Communicator
