Can You Scare A Macaw Into Talking? By Chet Womach At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

I know what you're thinking; what a terrible thing to preach. Scaring a Macaw should never be a good way to teach your parrot to talk. And I agree... you should never take your macaw and severely frighten him. But through some recent studies, researchers are finding out that Macaws are more likely to learn to mimic a word when they hear it in a 'heightened state of emotion'.

That means that if a Macaw hears a word being spoken while his senses are piqued, he'll learn the word easier. So it might be a good idea to start looking for opportunities where your macaw is in that state of mind.

I know my Blue and Gold Macaw, gets excited when he sees me for the first time in the morning. I can tell because his eyes will pin and he perks right up. If your Macaw gets excited to see you in the morning start saying a word you want him to say, and do this for several weeks. You'll probably notice that just by repeating a phrase when you greet your macaw in the morning will work much better at training him to talk then by simply repeating a phrase all day long. Timing is crucial with Macaw speech training.

Another example on the opposite side of the spectrum is a Macaw that learns to say things when he's scared or startled. For example, you may know a friend with a Macaw who cusses up a storm. This is usually because the bird was startled by an aggressive argument or shouting match whereas the owners of the house were very loud and scaring the bird with an argument. So it's no surprise that Macaws learn to pick up on the words being spoken during such fights.

And while I don't recommend fighting with the members of your family, you can use this fear technique to teach a Macaw to speak... you'll just want to tone it down a bit.

What I recommend is throughout the day randomly saying a word very loud that you want your bird to say. And say it just loud enough so it moderately startles your bird. You don't want to scare him too much so he falls off his perch and hurts himself. Instead just loudly speak a word or phrase you want your Macaw to say just loud enough so he perks up his head as if moderately startled.

Don't do this too much, just 2 or 3 times a day. After all, we don't want to overstress your Macaw. But in time you'll probably notice he starts to repeat that phrase you've been startling him with the past several weeks.

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