Rhea was a female who exactly knew what she wanted and she also knew how to get it. Nearly no other budgie dared to come to close to her, she always behaved rather dominant. She put Orion, whom she passionately loved, to a long test until she finally accepted his courtship in the beginning of '99.

A friend of mine once called her a cuddling matron what probably was the most fitting description of her character I have ever heard. Rhea was extremely curious and constantly looked for a breeding place. Thus she for example examined my sleeves and trouser pockets and in former times she loved to climbed into my wardrobe where she was sitting down on my socks for "breeding". On 03/06/95 the Banded Pied hatched from her egg. Since she was fledged, Rhea used to live in my bird room.

Before she mated with Orion, Rhea hat a short liaison with Umbriel. Three gorgeous chicks rose from their relationship: Sirius, Mimas and Vesta, who is called Rübe today what means "turnip" in English.

Already as a young bird, Rhea concocted a lot of monkey business the whole day long. The picture on the right shows her doing some yoga. Don't despond, her body actually is that twisted! Her feet were beneath her wings when she lifted them up to let herself hang down from her toes. In the pic, her tail points towards the viewer and the brownish dot in the center of her body is her vent.

On 09/11/01 in the early morning, me and my feathered friend, we had to go a very hard way, her last one indeed. A few weeks before that day, Rhea became very ill. She suffered from a painful kidney problem that unfortunately turned out to be incurable. I brought her to my vet to let him put her to sleep. When her little heart stopped beating, I lost one of the very best friends I ever had.

Meaning of the name
The moon Rhea surrounds the ring planet Saturn. According to the Greeks, Rhea was one of the Titans and she married her brother Kronos. Their offspring was Zeus who finally killed his father. In the mythology, Uranus and Gaea were the parents of Rhea. She was the goddess of the earth, the forests and the mountains.