At small (but still positive) values of u and v , the pulsation decays slowly, and this decay can be described analytically. In the first approximation, the parameters u and v give additive contributions to the decay; the decay rate, as well as the amplitude and phase of the nonlinear oscillation, can be approximated with elementary functions in a manner similar to the period above. In describing the behavior of the idealized Toda oscillator, the error of such approximations is smaller than the differences between the ideal and its experimental realization as a self-pulsing laser at the optical bench. However, a self-pulsing laser shows qualitatively very similar behavior.