There's a Pro Action Replay code you can use to force yourself to transform into Squawks:
http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=303#p5527Spitting an egg/nut at Kleever does affect his hit counter, but it's very buggy. Sometimes, a single projectile will defeat him, presumably because Kleever doesn't become invulnerable after the projectile makes contact with him, and it depletes his health every frame. If you shoot too many projectiles at him in rapid succession, the game will crash, presumably because the battle will jump past the defeated phase to an invalid one.