Parakeet Training Record

In the 60's, science had an answer for everything, and vinyl did much more than just supply you with the latest pop tunes. For a mere 98 cents, this 45rpm disc from Hartz Mountain claimed to be able to teach your parakeet to talk using a "scientific new method". The idea, it would seem, was to place your bird near the record player while a "carefully trained voice" recited over and over again a series of banal phrases. "Hello, baby", says the voice. "Hello, baby".

Whether this worked or not is anyone's guess (put me down for No), but judging from the wear on this particular disc, it would appear that somebody gave it a shot. It's actually hard to imagine how much easier using this record might have been compared to the "old fashioned" method it replaced. Considering that each side of the thing is only about 3 minutes long, a dedicated parakeet owner would have had to do an awful lot of record-flipping to generate any appreciable amount of listening time. Weigh that against the disadvantage to having your parakeet learn only those phrases carefully selected by the Hartz Mountain engineers, and -- wait, I keep forgetting. This was the 60's, and these are consumers we're talking about.

It's too bad that the parakeet training concept seems to have been a passing phenomenon. With today's multi-gigabyte MP3 players able to hold hours of sound, it might actually have a chance. Hello, baaaaaby...

jason_uk (sweet_jason_uk@yahoo.com) says:
how do you tell if your bird is a parakeet or a budgie and if your bird is female or male (06-25-2002)

Diffy (xdiffyx@hotmail.com) says:
can any one please tell me the easiest way to teach a parakeet to talk (06-20-2002)

Pierre-Michel Tremblay (Tremblay_Michel@Videotron.ca) says:
I've tried different browsers and I simply can't download any of the 3 .rm files!!! Why is that? Can you please fix this whenever possible?

Thanks.
PM (06-17-2002)

RevSteve says:
I love how the intro says that it's "specialy designed to teach any healthy, normal parakeet to talk". I can't help but imagine the poor frantic parakeet owner, who after playing the record repeatadly, can only conclude that something MUST be wrong with their bird. (06-08-2002)

JMC (vitaphone@aol.com) says:
I've fond memories of the Sub-Genius Parakeet Training Record, which taught Budgie to say: "Please help me to escape!" "They Make Me Say Things!" "Just let me die", etc.

This record, or any other parakeet training record, is also a fine convenience for lazy parents who want to teach their children to talk but find the "old method" indeed "is too much trouble and takes too long." Besides, who could resist an infant gurgling "Wanna Eat?" (06-05-2002)

Tom Turrittin says:
I have a copy of this album, and I must say that the woman's sing-song voice becomes positively disturbing when played at 45-speed. Her up-down intonation of "Happy day, swwetheart, wanna kiss?" is creepy, and the phrase "Wanna eat!" achieves a certain annoying earnestness. If you can find this album, play it slow, play it slow. (05-14-2002)

Pierre-Michel Tremblay (Tremblay_Michel@Videotron.ca) says:
Bonjour Frank,

I would like to give my budgie to try the training record but my browser is not able to pick the JSP application. I does not do anything. I have IE for Macintosh OS X. Real audio player does not work on OS X. Could I have these 3 files in another format (AU or WAV or MP3)?

Thanks.
Michel. (04-25-2002)

Sir Droopy Drawers (eatme@work.com) says:
Hey, if this works on birds, how about women. I dated a woman who really could have used this album. Now if you excuse me, my asylum awaits for me. (03-31-2002)

SNOOPYKJL (snoopykjl@msn.com) says:
That bird thing is like so cool! I cant find another method that works like this for my bird! THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (03-25-2002)

krystal (snoopykjl@msn.com) says:
Yuor parakeet thing was cool! my parakeet tryed to sound out the words as rhey were saidover and over!
THANKS!!!!!! (03-25-2002)

Stacey O:-) says:
okay... first off this is soooo funny! LOL.... Although this method DOES work! I feel very sorry for the likes of flipping records. I just record my own voice on a wave file and play it on media player in a continuous loop... that works better....
As for sexing your bird... well Parakeets lave color variations on their nose. if your bird's nose is Blue it is a boy, if it's brown, pink, or some variation, it's a girl. but this only works in the Budgie Parakeet variety as far as I know. (03-06-2002)

Sir Droopy Drawers says:
If you can't tell male parakeet from a female, then you should get a subscription to Playbird. All the info is right there in front of you. Well, if you excuse me, my asylum awaits for me. (02-23-2002)

mackall (Ruffboyz_911@yahoo.com) says:
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOUR PARAKEET IS A MALE OR A FEMALE (02-04-2002)

clennan hell webber (modest@sdf.lonestar.org) says:
I found this record when I was 14 at a thrift store in alabama. This 45 has proved to be a definite conversation piece. I have always wondered what the cover looked like. It has an almost IDM/Dub feel to it i.e... hello...hello baby...(2 sec pause) hello...hello baby...it's great there really needs to be a library dedicated to recordings of such... (01-20-2002)

scott wall (swall@weston.rmplc.co.uk) says:
do parakeets tolk (01-14-2002)

cbhash (cbhash@aol.com) says:
I swear when i play the parrot backwards i can hear Stairway to Heaven! (11-29-2001)

craigeleh (seekaydio) says:
I swear that if you play the third track backwards, the mock parrot says, "By Joves, Ritchie Havens has no teeth".Pretty weird stuff. (11-29-2001)

cbhash (cbhash@aol.com) says:
On the track of what a real parakeet should sound like, i've never heard a parakeet sound like an old wino before. A hungry wino at that. That parrot is an insult to winos everywhere. (11-29-2001)

craigeleh (seekaydio@aol.com) says:
good morning good morning. The "wanna eat?" was actually punched in as an overdub much later, a bit later. I believe that this is a Yoko Ono cover of one of my favorite Sgt Pepper tunes. Could it be Yoko? (cause it certainly aint magic) (10-29-2001)

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