More hypocricy from me

D. Richard pointed out a while back (though in much nicer terms than I am using here!) that I am a bit hypocritical when it comes to the way I treat my parrots, specifically Brian.  There is a different set of rules for him than for my larger parrots.  The comment was made in reference to Brian eating breakfast off of our plates -- we'd never allow that from anyone else.  The same could be said for shoulders (Brian's the only one ever allowed on mine, though Thomas is a bit lax about that).  This morning, I thought of another incidence of hypocrisy on this front: destroying the newspaper.

I've given this a lot of thought and while I try to avoid hypocrisy as much as possible, in this case, I'm OK with it.  I have several justifications for this:

1. Due to the size difference, when Brian does something, it doesn't negatively affect me.  He takes tiny bites of Thomas's toast; Max would grab the entire slice of bread and try to fly off with it.  Even if he tried, he could not make me bleed with a face bite; Max has done so (to Thomas, but not something I'm willing to risk.)  He takes a few tiny chunks out of the paper; Max has a mission to render the entire page unreadable with her shredding capabilities.

2. Also due to the size difference, my larger parrots do not seem to consider Brian to be a source of competition.  The other birds watch very closely what the others do/get, (anthropomorphism warning!) get jealous if someone gets better treatment, and try to enforce the rules.  For example, Max knows birds are not allowed on shoulders -- when Rocky or Stella go on Thomas's shoulder, she buzzes them.  When Rocky first came to us, he didn't think parrots should be allowed on the floor.  For months, he'd scream when any parrot went on the floor, until he finally learned that it was OK.  If I tried to have a different set of rules for one of the larger parrots, I'd risk a mutiny.  With Brian, not so much.

3. As a 10 year old tumor budgie, he probably doesn't have long to live.  (I hope I'm making this statement 10 years from now!)  It makes me so happy to see him exploring new things and enjoying life, and I want to make his remaining time with us as wonderful as possible.

4. Not that my other birds aren't cute, but there is something about the tiny guys.  How could I possibly resist?