When Bobby the budgie shocked the vicar | Letters
Readers respond to an article about avian onanism with their own pets’ self-pleasuring anticsSixty years ago, my father had a budgerigar that my brother and I named “Bobby the wanking...
By Guardian Staff · The Guardian Opinion
Readers respond to an article about avian onanism with their own pets’ self-pleasuring antics Sixty years ago, my father had a budgerigar that my brother and I named “Bobby the wanking budgie” ( Masturbation among birds is ‘natural’ and should not be punished, say experts, 1 June ). Its favourite toy in the cage was a hanging mirror with a bell on it, and Bobby often became so excited by his own image that he would cling on to the mirror and give it a good hammering, accompanied by frantic bellringing, appropriate comments from his listeners and giggling from my mum: “Dirty little devil!” Very amusing, except when the vicar came around one afternoon. Mum was mortified. Bobby probably thought: “I’ll show this bloke what bellringing is!” Denis Compton Worcester • Birds are not the only creatures capable of self-pleasuring. In the 1970s we had a hamster that was flexible enough to do the job orally. (And my mother had a budgie named Timmy who would occasionally give himself a good time in front of his mirror.) Peter Johnson Leicester Continue reading...