Toki the Love Bird

Many people never get the privilege of owning a bird. My girlfriend loves birds and has always had a bird growing up. When we first met she had two cute little love birds. Peaches and Toki.

Now, when you get a pair of love birds, you preferably want them to be paired.

To make a long story short. Peaches and Toki came from two different places and were brought together by my girlfriends family. By the time I joined the picture, the two birds were in the same cage but their relationship was still not functional. It had taken my girlfriend and her mom a while to get them this far. What I saw was this.

Now Toki had accepted the fact that he was now a mate with Peaches and he seemed to genuinely care for her.

They did in fact communicate quite well. Toki would tweet and then she would tweet. She would whistle then he would whistle. Even if they were in different rooms. It was like they were checking to see if the other was there.

He fed her regularly, even though she ate well enough on her own.

Peaches willingly excepted the food even though she had eaten already. It was the only thing she seemed to like him for. It seemed like all she did was eat and it was apparent when you compared the two.

She was definitely better fed than Toki, who shared a lot of his meal. Never did she feed him back.

He also tried to groom her. On occasions she would let him, but she never returned the favor. The most Toki ever got out of her was that she would sit still while he groomed. Most of the time she would get bored with it and attack him. And he would end up hiding from her on the other side of the cage.

Sometimes when they were just sitting there she would bite at him for no apparent reason. And it was almost guaranteed that Toki would get attacked if you were giving him more attention than her.

Still. Every day Toki fed her what he had been eating and tried to take care of her.

Now you're probably thinking that Peaches is a bit evil. But don't, you will make my girlfriend cry. (The relationship between Peaches and my girlfriend is a cute/funny story, that I may tell later)

Sadly, in 2009 Peaches got sick and didn't survive it. She passed away in my girlfriends hands and when my girlfriend showed her to Toki he tried to groom her. When she didn't seem to respond or attack him he tried their whistle. No response... He tried again and he nudged her. Nothing. He stared at her for a few long moments then he took a few steps away and just looked at her. He whistled a few more times and then was silent... He flew back to the cage and sat in silence. It was so sad that even I teared up.

But enough with the sad part of the story. After a few days Toki seemed to realize his new found freedom. He didn't have to masticate for anyone any more and he wasn't getting attacked every day. He generally seemed happy swinging on his perch.

A couple weeks went by and my girlfriend decided she should get another bird, just so Toki doesn't have to be alone in the room when everyone is gone. She knew he was too old to hook up with another love bird so she opted for a cockatiel that would be kept in a neighboring cage.

Enter Zel.

Zel still had some baby feathers when we got her and she was just growing her plume. She was nearing young adulthood.

Toki is getting old.

I figure that getting Zel was the equivalent of putting a high school cheerleader in a cage next to a creepy old guy.

Toki wanted everything to do with her. Zel seemed generally afraid of him.

When we would have them both out Toki tried so many times to get close to her.

Sometimes he would even sneak up behind her and try to groom her tail feathers.

She would have nothing to do with that.

He has since realized that she is out of his league. But we put them in the same cage together from time to time just for the entertainment value or to clean the other cage. Zel usually ends up dominating the cage and Toki ends up on the opposite side while she eats his food... like nothing had ever changed.