Eep, we've discovered pinching!

Vandal is so sweet and snuggly and he's getting really good at being "gentle" with his beak. That is, letting up on how hard he is biting on my fingers when I tell him gentle.

But the past four days he has discovered pinching! Where he just quick grabs a tiny bit of skin and pinches the crap out of me. And it's so quick I don't get a chance to tell him to be gentle. He has pinched hubby and the kids, too, but mostly he just pinches me. And the little snarky brat always pinches me like right in sensitive skin by the armpit :17:

I haven't decided if I'm doing something that makes him want to pinch me more, or if he just pinches me more because I hold him more. I can't really pinpoint a trigger. He does it when I'm petting him. It seems random, not like.. because I hit an uncomfortable feather (if I hit an uncomfortable feather he grabs my wrist gently for a second). He'll also do it when we're just sitting together, or playing with a toy..

I definitely let out a good squeak the first time he did it -- caught me totally by surprise and did NOT feel good (stinker gave me a bruise), so maybe he's hoping I'll squeak again. I've been pretty good about not giving any fun reactions since though, I think.

Not sure what I should be doing, though. I've tried telling him "gentle" hoping he'll get the hint that it hurts (he doesn't seem to have). I put him on the floor and ignored him after doing it (which made him incredibly pathetic and sad, and then he wanted to snuggle and be pitiful when I picked him back up, but he still pinched me again shortly after). I put him back in his cage. I held his beak and told him sternly that it hurt. He just.. keeps.. pinching me -.-

What am I doing or not doing wrong?

Your title says it all. He's discovered it. It's a phase. (Then again, my RFM is what? I've lost track of how old she is 10+, and she still pinches when she wants to get my attention, when she wants to play, or when she's really POed about something.) So it's not necessarily a phase they ever entirely grow out of...

Turn it into a game and distract him from pinching. When he starts to turn his beak sideways, he's probably gonna... so push the beak away, and start the aligator finger beak wrestling game.

Pinching is actually good, because when they learn to communicate by pinching, it means they DIDN'T learn to communicate by biting...

And again, emphasis on "That's too hard!"