Mordechai

This page is for my oldest pet, Mordechai. Mort will turn 17 on Thanksgiving Day 2005. I have had Mort since he was 3 months old. Mort got his name cause he joined my home during Purim. As I was running through a list of potential names he snapped out a "Hello" when I said Mordechai.

I raised Mort while living in the AEPi fraternity house in Santa Barbara. Mort now lives in my home office. Mort is a monstruous 42" from head to tail. A few years ago I had a custom cage built for Mort so that he would not break his tail feathers when he turned around. Of course when I measured the maximum size that would fit through the French Doors on the back of the office I made sure the cage wasn't too big for the doorway. However, I never measured the space between the doors and the rail on the office balcony.

So to get his 500lb cage (7foot by 5 foot by 4 foot) up through the doors we had to cut the balcony off the back of my house and it took 8 men to lift the cage up to the second story. This was such an amazing (or crazy) act, that Mort and I were interviewed for the documentary movie, "Birds of a Feather" by Mira Tweti. Mira returned to visit with Mort and myself 8 years later to get some updates as she finishes her new book about birds. Watch for the release in 2006

Mort has an incredible vocabulary and a great personality.

	Mort is allowed to roam throughout the fruit trees in the backyard. The problem is when he is done munching the fruit and pruning the tree he likes to climb onto the roof of the house. These pics are of Mort on the roof of the house looking down at me from the opening where the skylight is in the living room.
		This is a recent picture of Mort (Fall 2001). You can get a vague idea of his size and colors.
Here is a backside shot of Mort. Those wings tucked away into his back are each over 3 feet long. His wings look larger than most pet parrots because I keep his wings in what is called a show clip. The insides of all the flight feathers are cut.... I don't recommend this for most people unless you know your bird well, with just one new flight feather in place most birds can fly with this type of a clip.
This pic is from Mort's First Easter with Pavia the Pug when she was just a lil pup.	Here is Mort Playing with Boug out in the yard. Mort and Boug have been living together for a couple of years. They get along very well. Mort comes out of his cage daily. And Mort and Boug can spend over an hour each day playing tag. Up and down the stairs, from office to bedroom from bedroom to bathroom they chase each other back and forth. Neither ever catches the other.... but it is very funny to watch.
		Here Mort is trying to teach Tara the art of picking him up so he can find something better to eat off the table.
	Mort showers about once a week. Usually he uses the shower. Occassionaly her gets to shower in the bird bath in the back yard.