Beaky birdie.

[lwis]

So I have a six month old green cheek conure. We have had him for one week now. So far he is a very sweet boy. He gladly comes out of his cage (actually, he begs for it by dancing) and will step up from his cage nicely every time. He also goes to bed when it is bed time. He seems to be quite comfortable with both my boyfriend and I, and will attempt to fly to us (his flight feathers are growing back still) all the time.
Usually pretty gentle, but he is still beaking. I do not want to discourage him from exploring his environment with his beak, but, as this species seem to be notorious, he sometimes beaks or nips too hard. It is by no means a bite, as he has never drawn blood and doesn't seem to do it out of fear or aggression, but it is never the less uncomfortable and unwanted. I am aware that every bird can and will nip every now and then, and that is fine. I just want to discourage it as much as possible.
Now I know this topic has been discussed before, and I have read much about it. I have read that it is best to ignore bites and to instead, reward good behaviour. This makes perfect sense to me when a bird is biting out of fear or aggression, however, When the nips are occurring during play or during another positive experience, how is the bird to know when he is applying too much pressure if you ignore everything?

Here are some of the techniques I have heard reduce this behaviour as well as the concerns that I have with them:

1. Shake of the hand
-This only 'works' if the bird is perched on your hand.
- if your bird is playing while on your hand, he may enjoy the shake, which would reinforce the bite.
-if he gets scared, he will not want to be on your hand, and may develop a fear of hands and/or the owner.

2. putting bird on the floor and walking away or ignoring it.
- he might think this is a game if he is not bothered by it.
- he might not connect the two events

3. blowing in face
-this just doesn't sound very nice to me.
-I have tried it once, and there was absolutely no reaction from the bird. If anything, he seemed to enjoy it.

4. Grabbing beak while saying no
-bird probably doesn't understand 'no'
-if playing, he might nip more.

Here are some things we have been trying:

-We sometimes do the hand shake slightly, and it seems to startle him a bit, but doesn't seem to scare him. Although, I really don't know if it is helping to reduce the nipping. I also do not want him to think that our hands are unsafe places to perch.

-We have, only a couple times if he is being relentless, removed him from where he was and put him down on the bed or couch a few feet away from us and will turn our back to him for a minute.
I have no idea if this is doing anything.Though, when he is let back on our hand or shoulder after this, he does give kisses as if to apologize and is gentler for a while.

-one thing I have been doing that seems to stop the behaviour is, when he nips too hard, I make a short "pssst" sound. I know that you are not suppose to yell or say ouch or no, but this seems to be closer to the sound he makes when he doesn't seem to like something. It doesn't seem to scare him (he seems relatively fearless). I just don't want this to do more harm than good.

We have also begun target and clicker training with him. He seems to be picking it up pretty quick, but we haven't gotten much further than him fallowing the stick around.

I realize that a lot of the things I mentioned have already been discussed in other posts or blogs, but I was just trying to write out my thoughts on this topic in hopes of getting a little feedback.

So, like many people, I am a little confused as to which direction I should take with this, and I do not want to inadvertently enforce bad behaviour and at the same time discourage a good relationship.
I just don't understand how completely ignoring these bites or nips, in this case, would accomplish much.
If someone could shed some light on this, that would be great! Thanks for taking the time to read this long post.

Much appreciated!

[Kath]

I can't believe but the thing that you wrote abut making a "psssst" sound seems to be working on my bird. At first he looked at me like he was surprised and then tried to bite me again (I didn't move my hand - was on a computer mouse). Before he touched me I "psssted" again and he stepped back. And it was few times in a row but worked. It was the first time he just walked away calmly. I was like "WOW, that felt nice not to be bitten ;P". Well I believe we will have to repeat this over and over before he quits bitting for good but I have good feeling about this
So thanks for advice

[dohcsvt]

OK, I read a post once that said to stop this nippiness respond like another bird would. I am sure to get chastised for this, but IT DOES WORK, atleast on my green cheek. When he bites (mine does bite, even though we interact daily) I make a loud angry squaking noise and poke him with my finger (NOT hard, but rapidly and with enough pressure to get his attention), he instantly stops and looks at me like " what the hell was that".
Also, from watching my 2 birds interact I have reallized that even when one gets angry, they only stay angry for a brief moment and then are interacting and preening each other again. So after I squak/poke him, I then within a few seconds start loving on him again, and he is generally much nicer at this point and not distressed nor angry. I have been doing this for a few weeks and the nipiness is definitely decreasing. I can assure you and anyone who reads this that I am not hurting the bird and that this tactic is working very well for me.

[lwis]

Hey, thanks for the responses. For a while there, I thought no one was going to respond at all.
Kath, I am glad to hear that the technique I am using is also working for you. I am using similar logic to what dohcsvt was discussing. I am Just trying to do what my bird does when he doesn't like something. It seems to work so far. I do agree that showing affection shortly after, but not right away, is a good idea too. But maybe not all the time so that the bird doesn't find a pattern that bite = noise and love.
Thanks again. I guess I will just keep doing what I am doing then for the time being.

[dohcsvt]

I hope that it works out. Mine almost does not nipat all anymore...YAY!! But he still loves me just like always and of course visa versa.

[liz]

OK, I read a post once that said to stop this nippiness respond like another bird would. I am sure to get chastised for this, but IT DOES WORK, atleast on my green cheek. When he bites (mine does bite, even though we interact daily) I make a loud angry squaking noise and poke him with my finger (NOT hard, but rapidly and with enough pressure to get his attention), he instantly stops and looks at me like " what the hell was that".
Also, from watching my 2 birds interact I have reallized that even when one gets angry, they only stay angry for a brief moment and then are interacting and preening each other again. So after I squak/poke him, I then within a few seconds start loving on him again, and he is generally much nicer at this point and not distressed nor angry. I have been doing this for a few weeks and the nipiness is definitely decreasing. I can assure you and anyone who reads this that I am not hurting the bird and that this tactic is working very well for me.

My babies don't bite but Rachel, my daughter, uses the poke method on Rambo when she tells him no that he can't do something. When I tell Myrtle no she gets so busy back talking me that she forgets what she was doing.