Find the perfect companion for you and your family
Breed: Cockatiel Temperament: usually affectionate, individuals can vary Cost: from $20-$100 for pets, more for show quality Lifespan: 15 years Recommended for: beginners and families Maintenance: medium Appearance Cockatiels are small to medium sized native parrots...
Oriental Shorthair Cats Breed: Oriental Shorthair Cat Temperament: playful and affectionate Cost: from $300 to $500 Recommended for: couples and families Maintenance: low Appearance The Oriental Shorthair has been described as the Ferrari or greyhound of the cat...
Breed: Lorikeets Temperament: gregarious and trainable Maintenance: medium-high Cost: $50-$6500 Lifespan: 7-9 years Recommended for: beginners to experienced birdkeepers History of the Lorikeet Lorikeets are native birds found in coastal areas around Australia....
Problem Dog Roger the Red Setter is a fun-loving dog, who is also headstrong, easily excited and frantic around guests. Roger rampages through the garden, breaks plants, digs holes, barks incessantly at parrots that visit his backyard, and will not respond to normal...
Ralph Obituary If you thought that something was missing from this week’s program you were right: it was Ralph, the pug. Sadly, Ralph passed away on December 19, 2000. The cause of his death is not known, but it was possibly snakebite. Ralph was born with the...
Dog Mat Rita Hill created a soft, fleecy mat for her dog. Sparky needed a medium-sized mat, but it’s easy to change the dimensions to suit the size of your own pooch. Dog Bed Sizes (includes 3cm seam allowance) Small 76cm x 56cm Medium 76cm x 106cm Large 96cm x...
Tennis Ball Dog Monica Wilson wrote to Burke’s Backyard to tell us about Georgia, her black Labrador Retriever. Monica claimed that the dog can hold three tennis balls in its mouth at once! Don visited the Wilson family to see this amazing dog in action. Sure...
Fostering Cubs Fiona Fearon and Rob Zammit are hand-rearing two tiger cubs. When only a few days old, the tiny Bengal tiger cubs were rejected by their mother. It is thought that a period of very heavy rain caused the mother to abandon her cubs to concentrate on her...
Satin Bowerbird Paul and Chris Coffey contacted ‘Burke’s Backyard’ to tell us that satin bowerbirds were constructing a bower in their garden. John Dengate visited the Coffeys and had a look at the bower, which he says was built by a group of...
Talking Budgie Recently Bill Marks wrote to Burke’s Backyard to tell us about his talking budgerigar, Frederick. Freddie is a 4-year-old male budgie with an amazing vocabulary. In fact, attached to Bill’s letter was a three page list of all the things...