Stubbins and Archie

This is Stubbins. He's a Yellow Collared Lovebird:

I bought him as a companion for Archimedes since he always seemed lonely and beyond consolation from mere human interaction.

Here there is a online buying service called Trademe which is a lot like Craigslist in the U.S. 

I have learned from experience that what you see and what you get off the site are often two separate things.

My Audi A4 for instance; it looked pretty damn flash in the ads but in real life it is a massive piece of shit and money pit.

I have only purchased one item from Trademe that has caused me 100% satisfaction and that was my Fijian Kauri custom made table that a recently widowed woman was selling. 

It was everything it seemed to be and its warm glowing wood is a jewel in the dining room.

I have a theory that Archimedes once had a companion but when I went to the pet store to look at birds he was the odd man out.

Lovebirds are very sensitive and can pine for a long time if they lose a mate. 

My mother the family therapist said she thought he might have some grieving and separation issues.

Anyway, I found a lady on Trademe who was selling lovebirds for cheap and I decided to buy one.

I bought a little carrying cage for it and watched as she scooped it out of the larger cage and put it into mine.

As soon as I got him home I put his cage out in the conservatory and let Archimedes out so they could interact and talk to each other.

They called to each other and Archimedes landed on his little cage and inspected him closely.

I finally moved the new guy into the larger cage and was a little anxious that Archimedes would bully him a bit.

He did. So I removed his swing and happy hut and other things that he would see as his.

After trying to mate with the new birds several times, Archimedes settled into a routine of allopreening and then bullying the new bird.

I soon noticed to my chagrin that the newbie had an injury over one eye and that his feet were deformed so perching was not easy for him.

Parrots have zygodactylous feet which means they should have two toes facing forward and two facing backwards. All of the newbie's faced forward.

I quickly began to admire him though because, despite this and being bullied by Archimedes he stubbornly held his own and managed to perch anyway.

At night he would sleep at the bottom of the cage so I bought him his own happy hut to keep him warm and comfortable.

Unlike Archimedes, I could pick up and pet the new bird and he would not flip out.

So a few weeks have gone by and the two young bachelors have become good friends.

I've named the new bird Stubbins because his little feet are stubby. 

His eye injury has healed completely.

As you can see from the pictures below, he and Archimedes have formed an attachment to each other and seem to be getting along quite well.