New baby green cheek very beaky

Hello everybody,

I have a new baby green cheek since yesterday. Everything is going very well, and I'm teaching him to sep up and step down. He's almost 3 months old.
The only thing is that he's very beaky. I know that green cheeks can be very beaky, and that he's still very young and wants to explore everything with his beak. Most of the time he does it very careful but every now and then he nibbles harder and harder until it hurts a lot. I try to use the word 'gentle', but I'm not sure if that really helps. Do you have any idea what I should do when he's on my hand and biting too hard? Should I just say 'no', or 'gentle', or put him down or so?

Parrots may be smart, but 'gentle' or 'no' won't mean anything to him until you teach him. Every time he bites, I'd say the word of your choice and put him down or back in his cage. Eventually he should learn this word as a warning. He's not being mean, he just doesn't know what's okay yet so you need to communicate it to him. Best of luck :]

Thank you very much. I know that he's not being mean. What i have been doing today, and it has helped already -- every time when I say 'gentle' I just take his beak off my finger, and it's helping. He's been a lot more gentle already.

Excellent, just remember they do use their beak for many more things than just biting! They use it for walking, holding, etc. when asking him to step up, he will quite often put his beak down to your finger just to measure it, if you hesitate and pull your finger away he will then begin to say OK you cluts and grab your finger and hold it steady so they can step up onto it! Also understand, you will never be able to eliminate all biting. There's too much involved with a bite from a parrot! He may be trying to warn you of danger, he may be telling you that you're doing something very annoying, and many other things. In my opinion these types of bites you need to respect,accept and ask what did you do wrong?

IndySE said:

Parrots may be smart, but 'gentle' or 'no' won't mean anything to him until you teach him. Every time he bites, I'd say the word of your choice and put him down or back in his cage. Eventually he should learn this word as a warning. He's not being mean, he just doesn't know what's okay yet so you need to communicate it to him. Best of luck :]

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I would avoid using the cage as timeout. I've seen it backfire so many times and make things worse! Such as biting when they want to go in the cage.

The best thing I find is to give a stern "no bite" with a grumpy face and put them on the floor, then pay attention to something else. Of course being a baby you'll do it a lot but they learn so quickly. Especially at that age when they want to be the center of attention more than anything. Just be consistent with the method you use and consistent with the pressure. A little is fine, but do it before it hurts, you don't want to be upset when you tell them no or you may inadvertently make it entertaining for them. It's a very similar thing with dogs, or at least how I did bite pressure with my dogs, never angry, just letting them know that too much pressure means no more play time

I've actually had much success with time-outs. It's how I got Skittles to go from evil-possessed to adorably obedient.

Granted, Skittles is free-flighted so he's not used to being caged (though he can come and go as he pleases throughout the day). But what I did was get him a very small time-out cage and cover him. I'd put him in those time-outs for anywhere from 1-2min up to as much as five minutes. I used to have to put him in time-outs several times a day. I haven't had to do that now, for over two years. I don't even have the timeout cage anymore. I no longer need it.

I get that people have differing results, but for me it worked wonders. He used to scream constantly when I was on the phone for example. Now, he doesn't. I usually give him a treat while I'm on the phone if he's being quiet so he knows he's being good.

Sometimes using 'rewards' for good behavior can be just as effective (if not more) as using time-outs for bad behavior. But for me, it was the latter that made all the difference.

Granted I'd feel guilty as hell after his timeouts, but I live in a small apartment with six other units- so I had to act and it worked.

Just in case you have not seen it, am attaching a link http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

Thank you very much for the link. It's actually what I been doing already I see. Although it takes some time. I think Echo gets really excited with playing and then he nibbles harder and harder.

Babies are chastised by their parents so get told to knock it off at a young age btw.