New 2 month old U2 nipping question

[Sirius76]

Hello to everyone,

We've been lurking for quite some time and finally joined when my wife and I purchased a 4 month old U2. Our baby, Jasmine, is still at the breeders and is on one handfeeding a day. (28cc's) We expect to bring her home in about a week or so. WE HOPE! We go to her everyday and do the handfeeding ourselves. The bird is an absolute sweetheart and everything is going great! Just what you'd expect from a U2. ( I promise to have pics has soon as she's home)

Heres our situtation. We've heard different answers so we thought we'd ask the infinite knowledge of this group. While handling Jasmine, Jasmine likes to "feel out her beak". We know shes still learning the strength of her beak and she likes to nip occasionally. Thats fine. We understand chicks do that. The situation arises when she tends to flex her muscle. Some "nips" are harder than others. Shes never broken the skin and it really doesn't hurt, but some bites are harder than others. (Bite is a bad word. Its more like a squeeze)

Anyway, our question is this. What is the best way to approach her about it? Our breeder says to hold her beak and sternly say "NO!" to her. Other sources we've read says to ignore it and not acknowledge it at all! So which is it? What have you all had luck with?

Thanks for reading. We appreciate any/all help we receive!

Oh yeah, My name is Dragan and my wifes name is Anja
We also have a 2 year old Cockatiel named Aileron and a 5yo Husky named PoohBear. I'll post pics of all our fids soon!

[Pepper's Pa]

Congratulations on your new U2.

In most situations I’d say ignoring her squeezes is the best choice, but at only four-months old you need to first teach her what is right and what is wrong.
At her young age I would recommend you address her “squeeze” pressure to teach her what is acceptable. As you feel her squeeze becoming harder, in a calm and relaxed voice say, “Be gentle” or something similar. Once she lessens her squeeze, reinforce her behavior with a “Good bird” and some scritches or a food treat.

Good luck.

[mmr]

when my Ellie (11 year old U2) does that I tell her to "BE NICE" in a calm voice. She usually stops.
But then make sure you aren't confusing "squeezing" and "beaking". Ellie LOVES to beak my hand, fingers, arns, legs. That is a sighn of affection.!!!

[jenseits]

As others have said, I don't think ignoring it is a good idea as that would only teach her that this is perfectly acceptable. Stewie my sun conure does the same thing, and he's not a baby; he just likes to put my fingers in his beak (like a baby will "mouth" things). If he's doing it too hard I tell him "be gentle" and take my finger away. That way he understands that I'm not mad at him, but I don't like that and if he keeps doing it then we stop playing. It's not a time out, as he gets to stay where he is he just doesn't get to chew on me anymore (for at least a few seconds). I think this helps him figure out where the limits are.

[SisterBlue]

I echo what everyone else has said about a stern "no". Our G2 was a little nippy when we got him, probably because he came from a large exotic bird store where I'm sure he had people grabbing at him all day. He learned "no" very quickly for a variety of things and I'm constantly reminded just how smart he is. He hasn't nipped at all in a couple of weeks but he definitely "uses" his beak to feel things out, which is fine with me.

It's funny...he likes to sit on the arm of my chair while I'm on the computer (usually playing World of Warcraft) and just hang out, chewing a foot toy or whatever...once in a while he will try to sneak onto my desk to chew my mousepad. He's learning "no" very well. The other night I saw him creeping over towards my desk and I said "no" just as he had one little foot in the air ready to step over....he froze like that (think "red light, green light"!) and it was so cute to watch him make the decision to be good. I could almost hear him sigh as he turned around back towards my chair where he was supposed to be.

-SB