Honey & Bunny

STORY OF HONEY & BUNNY

Honey and Bunny were given to us by a young friend of ours. He felt that he was seldom at home during the day and often out at night, so his budgies were being neglected. He asked if we would be prepared to take them on, but if we weren't, he was quite happy to keep them. It was June 1995 and the age of the birds was unknown, but could be two to three years old. We already had the larger parrots, so another two were not a problem, so agreed to have them.

He had called them Hannibal and Bunny, so we changed the male's name to Honey.

We discovered after getting them, just how messy budgies can be. They create more mess for their size than any larger parrots we have!

We allow them out for their fly around as with the other birds, and they have now moved house twice with us.

All about Bunny

Bunny was supposed to be Honey's mate, but she always rejected all advances by him. She was very self confident and very independent. She would allow me to pick her up, but nipped when you closed your hand around her. Being independent, she always insisted on doing everything for herself, be it moving around, eating or whatever. As budgies go, she was a lovely bird.

Eating habits

Bunny loved fresh carrot. We would cut the carrot in half and give one half to Honey and the other to Bunny. She would sit and eat carrot until she had an orange beak and looked ready to burst. She also enjoyed having apple as well. We would wedge this along with the carrot into the bars. She preferred carrot and apple any day to eating seed. On the seed front, she would only eat millet or treat sticks and ignored any other seeds put in to her bowl. A favourite with her was to sit and eat the treat stick or the millet spray until there was nothing left of it.

Fresh dandelion from the garden hung up on the bars did not last very long in the cage. The two would devour this as soon as your hand was removed from the piece on the bars.

Nesting and mothering instincts

Bunny loved her nest! She would sit and pull it to pieces for hours on end, but never used it for its purpose. I suppose the fact that she rejected Honey as a mate, she had no urge to do what came naturally.

A tragic ending for a great bird

Bunny was tragically killed by Cheeky on 03 February 2001. See the story on Cheeky for full details. Clicking on the link to the left will open a separate page for you so you can read that section from the story on Cheeky.

All about Honey

Honey is a very boisterous and noisy male. He makes a lot of noise when he is feeling "talkative". He is very lovable and is good at making kissing sounds when you say goodnight to him. He loves chewing anything wooden to exercise his beak. His eating habits are very much the same as Bunny, except he was not as keen on the carrot as she was, although he does love it. He enjoys eating new and different things and eats most of what he is given. Fresh green grass seeds go down very well with him when they are available. We always have a special "wild patch" in our garden where all these sort of things are grown.

Honey looses his mate

Even though the two were not totally compatible, Honey was devastated when his mate was killed. Whenever I let him out now, I have to ensure that all the other birds are covered, otherwise he will go straight back into his cage and close the door. If you try to remove him, he holds the door closed, and if you persist, then he bites to prevent you taking him out. He was obviously very severely traumatized by the incident, and still is so at the time of writing this, nearly six month later.

We purchased a new mate for him the next day, to try and reduce the stress with loss of his mate. Read the story of Sunny, to find out about his new mate. He accepted his new mate without hesitation, and has more or less settled down now. He is still frightened when out though, and is very wary when he is out. Often, he flies back to the top of his cage and sits there for some time before going back in of his own accord.

We hope you have enjoyed the stories of Bunny and Honey, and will go on to read the stories of all our birds.

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