I have been warned about conures going through a nippy phase. Rio (my sun conure) just turned one yesterday. Lately, I have noticed him being nippy with me. It's not from aggressiveness. He just likes to do it for fun. I can take the pain but there are some parts where it can hurt a little.

What are the symptoms of nippy phases? Rio acts like a human baby teething. He likes chewing my fingers because it gives him some relief.

Is that a nippy phase? He is not aggressive at all. He's very playful. Also, when he does it, I just take the pain, or either play with him by gently swinging him around while he grabs on. It's very gentle, don't worry.

Also, he recently started this weird habit of grabbing his tail with his left foot, and puffs up like he's about to mate. He doesn't rub his vent or swings his tail. It looks like he's getting ready to mate. It looks like the male mating. He likes to nip while he's doing this as well. It looks like he's trying to grab his vent/preening glands. I even tried checking for egg bumps. He's acting very weird lately.

Sounds like he's growing up and starting to explore this new side of his personality. I would suggest not taking the pain, since that just teaches him that it's OK to chew on you. If it starts to hurt, you can gently tell him no, pull your finger away in a non-dramatic manner, and ignore him for a few seconds - basically putting him in timeout so he knows that the fun stops when he bites to hard. This is a good way to teach a bird where the boundaries are. When you go back to playing with him, if you want to you can offer a stick or something that he can chew on as hard as he wants.

Definitely no biting..... Good advice from Carolyn

Thank you! I won't let him bite me. Anything with the grabbing his tail? I'll try to get a photo. He does it often so it shouldn't be too hard.

I can only guess about the tail grabbing. But I would guess that he's bending it at an angle that gives him pleasurable feelings in the vent area. He might discover more interesting moves later on, but for now this is what he's figured out.

He likes to tickle his vent with his foot. I think he's trying to masturbate. I'll get a video of it.