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
• I always had my suspicions about parrots, but now it seems they are just being polyamorous.
Ian Barclay
Angmering, West Sussex
• Perhaps John Cleese’s parrot was genuinely “tired and shagged out following a long squawk”?
Chris Ainsworth
Rawtenstall, Lancashire
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