Posted May 29, 201015 yr Hello everyone all the way from England. I have been reading this forum for over a year now and have finally plucked up the courage to join and introduce myself and my baby boy Bruce(what else could we call a native of Australia ) I got Bruce in February 2009 when he was about 9 weeks old, and he was such a timid little boy. I tried following the advice in FAQ about finger taming him but he really didnt like me putting my finger near him while he was in his cage. I kept perservering very gently with no luck, but the guilt of keeping him confined to his cage soon kicked in, so after a month of him being with us I decided to chance letting him out to fly around. He was a bit bemused with the room layout at first, but after a few attempts soon found somewhere to perch. I quietly approached him talking quietly all the time, and low and behold he stepped on my finger. Since then we have been best friends. I talk constantly to him and he soon learnt how to talk, now at 18 months old he can talk for Britain there is no stopping him, he is soo funny and such good company for me. I would love to show you all a video of him talking but sadly I cant, as much to my frrustration everytime he talks and I get my phone out to film him(I have to turn the volume of the radio or TV down as the phone picks that up before his talking) he immediately shuts up, we say he is worked by the remote control , so even I havent got a record of him talking, so please take my word for it he really can talk, family and friends cant believe it when they hear him. I can show you all a photo of him though, so let me introduce my Bruce to all his Australian new friends.
May 29, 201015 yr Hey, Brucies Mum, it is great to have you here! I am so glad you plucked up the courage to join and post your wonderful story about Bruce. You have done so well with taming him and you are certainly reaping a wonderful reward. He may have felt that your hand was invading his space when he was in his cage. Letting him out when you did was obviously the right idea. It would be great to hear him talk. Don't stress over it - you will catch him one day. I must say Bruce is a very handsome little man. Welcome to the forum, Bruce! I hope we see a lot more of you.
May 30, 201015 yr Hello and welcome. Bruce is very cute. What does he say? I also have family in England. :fingerscrossed:
May 30, 201015 yr G'day and welcome to our wonderful forum. I hope you feel at home here and I can't wait to hear more about Bruce. :fingerscrossed:
May 30, 201015 yr hi brucies mum! :rofl: welcome :fingerscrossed: im sure will love being a bbc memeber, its quite adictive! he is very cute, i have always wanted a talking budgie! but have never had the patience :rofl: or the ability to withold from buying two i always want more what words can bruce say?
May 30, 201015 yr Welcome!! Bruce is goregous, he looks quite cheeky!! It's lovely to hear budgies talk, they are so entertaining. My first budgie was a real talker too!! I'd love to have a budgie which talks again, but with 6 budgies it's unlikely!! Howver it's still lovely to hear them babble away to each other, it's very soothing.
May 30, 201015 yr Author Thank you everyone for your very kind welcome to this lovely forum. I am most impressed with the information available here, and that you dont only cater to breeders but even the people like me who own one budgie as a pet. I think it is equally important that I have the correct information on looking after Bruce as it is for owners of multiple birds, and I certainly get that information here, unlike lots of budgie sites I found, they seemed to concentrate mainly on advice for breeders. It amazes me what a wealth of knowledge you all have, plus of course we all love our birds so that is an added bonus. I do get some funny looks from people who dont understand budgies, when I talk about Bruce, I think people dont realise just how intelligent budgies can be. I know Bruce has amazed me with his cleverness. He knows exactly if I go out of one particular door that I am going out of the house and not just out of the room, he gives little tweets as much to say dont leave me, really plucks at the heart strings But when I come back home as soon as he hears me come through the door I get excited tweets from him then Also as I said he is a brilliant talker and he has sussed out that if I go near his cage he jumps on the side to me and says Hello, and if me or hubby walk into the room he says hello and hello Dad, I never get the Dad bit so I'm sure he knows who Dad is. As for the rest of his repertoire it is almost limitless, he repeats almost everything we say to him as long as it is relating to him, I have even had him tell me to "shut up" when I tried to get him to say the name of one of my Daughters dogs and the reason he learnt to say shut up was not because we tell him to, but one day he had been particularly vocal all day and I said to him you are a chatterbox you have never shut up all day, of course he had to pick up the shut up bit out of the sentence so now he tells us to shut up. Another example of his talking and intelligence is... one day I was on the sofa using my laptop, his cage was next to me with the door open, I was busy on the laptop when a little voice says hello, I turned and he was on the platform outside the cage door, I replied to him hello, and he says what you doin.. I say I am on my lappy and he says "I'm talking to you" it was like he was wanting me to stop what I was doing and give him my attention. A list of his most frequently used words /sentences are Brucie Brucie Brucie Hello Hello Bruce Hello Dad What you doin Hello my little darling Mummies little boy Mummies little love cheeky monkey darling lad beautiful lad lovely boy my little boy love you beaky beaky boy little little love kiss kiss give us a kiss chopper chopper (like a helicopter noise but said literally as chopper chopper) hello baby hello my little boy clean cage on your perch dont you arent you God bless The list goes on there seems no limit to what he picks up. I do talk to him all the time and he is constantly with me as the stand for his cage has wheels so if I move rooms he comes with me, I even take him out in the garden with me(in his cage of course) when the weather is warm. When he was a baby I used to repeat the same words over and over for about ten minutes at a time until he learnt the word. Never taught him more than one word at a time, but now I dont actually teach him, he just picks up what I say during normal conversation. He even copies full conversation with out actually saying words, he uses all the inflections so although he may be saying jibberish you can tell it is human conversation he is mimicking. Sorry this has been a long post but as you can see I am besotted with Bruce and can never finish telling people all about him and how cute and clever he is. He is my best mate as my husband who is a sailor and works away from home, and Bruce is so much company for me. I did think about getting another bird to keep him company but once he showed his talent for talking I knew he would probably stop in the presence of another bird so I decided he would be a lone bird but hopefully not a lonely bird. For those who say you have family in England.. roughly where abouts are they? I live in the north of England mid way between Manchester and Liverpool.
May 31, 201015 yr welcome to forum your boy sounds remarkliby smart the way you taught him to talk is the exact way ment well done once they say a few things as you said they just pick up everything hes a lovley looking bird
