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Training As important as the need to belong, is the need to have its other basic needs met. The bird should be healthy, free of parasites, well groomed, well rested and so on. Old birds are like old dogs. You can't teach them new tricks. So how much your bird can talk and how long it will take, will depend to a great extent on the age of the bird. The younger the bird, the quicker it learns to mimic. Birds respond to members of their human flock in one of the three ways: they simply repeat what is said or their response can be pavlovian i.e respond to a cue or they can respond intelligently. As you can imagine to get your bird to respond the first way is less difficult and getting to respond cognitively is the most difficult and time consuming. Birds are most vocal at dawn and at dusk. For better results, training sessions should coincide with their naturally vocal timings.

You can decide whether dawn or dusk training sessions are more Training convenient for you keeping in mind that this may be a long drawn process. Or in case you want to make fast progress you could have two sessions, one in the morning and another in the evening. Training sessions of 10 - 20 minutes a day should be adequate.

Location is important. Find a place that is conducive for both you and the bird to focus. It should be a quiet place with a conducive atmosphere. Get all the other things you may need for the training session like the treat, a perch or a T-stand, a clicker and so on. Training is more effective, if done before the bird is given its feed.

Getting your Cockatiel to mimic is less difficult than to get it to respond to you cognitively. Getting a bird to mimic is like making a child learn by rote. It means constant mechanical repetition. For starters try mono-syllable words. Birds that experience two-way communication pick up words faster. When you are attempting to get the bird to mimic you, it will say something. Repeat that something. This reinforces the Training feeling that it is indeed communicating with its flock and that what you are wanting it to say is part of that communication vocabulary. Use associative words. The combination of action with intonation makes the bird focus better. For instance you could hold up a nut as you intone "nut". Or you could hold up a grape as you say "grape".

You may be able to get your bird to say its first word in a day or it may takes months. How soon this happens will depend on several factors. You can motivate the bird with words of affection and encouragement when it gets close to responding. When it actually intones the word you want it to, you should reward it with its special treat.

A treat is a training tool. It can be anything the bird especially loves. Only let it not be something that will eventually make the bird obese. As soon as the bird produces the desired result, reward it with words of affection and praise as you dig into your Training pocket for its reward. The bird should be able to associate praise, affection and reward with the desired behavior. One method some speech trainers consider more effective is the use of a third participant. That is one another person other the than you and the Cockatiel. The third person is preferably a child below ten years.

The other things you will need are the same as in the earlier training regimen. The two of you sit facing the bird which is on a T-stand. The trainer looks at the child , holds up a nut and says "nut" and the child responds saying "nut" and you reward the child by patting its head, saying affectionate and encouraging things, and actually give the nut to the child to eat. Now try the same thing with the bird. Because the bird is actually able to see the result of correct behavior, these trainers say the bird responds faster.