Cockatiels

Unfortunatly I have been told the same thing, but on the other hand Ive had my male cockatiel for a almost 2 years and he whistles alot, but lately he has taken to 'chatting'with little words and kissing noises. So you never know. Time and effort is what everyone says to have with them but my male was obsessed with me for some reason and wanted to impress, i fund it hard to get away from him when he was out of the cage lol. Good Luck hun

The bad news first: Probably not. Cockatiels a very clever, and can be decent talkers, but it's very hard with them. Your major problem is going to be that you have two. They are now a flock, and you're not. Cockatiels would rather talk to each other and use their own "language" to tell you how they feel and what they want. A solo bird, hand raised, with no mirrors, no television, and a very very VERY patient trainer could learn a couple of words. Even then, they're only mimicking the noise. Whistling, however, should be cultivated like crazy. It's more like you and pepper share a language then - one that you each can speak without trouble. He'll probably learn other types of whistle and use them to mean things the way we use words. Keep teaching him new sounds, and pay lots of attention to how he's using them! If you find that every day or so he goes through the whole litany of every whistle he knows, you're on the right track and might even try words at that point.