Lizzie’s Lumps Scott Cam was very worried when he discovered a large lump on his dog, Lizzie. Lizzie is the site manager on Backyard Blitz. The lump suddenly appeared on her front leg, and grew at a tremendous rate. Scott took Lizzie to see the Burke’s...
Meeting People with Dogs If you have trouble making friends, our resident scientist, Graeme Quirk, suggests that you get a dog. Recent research at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom showed that dogs can act as powerful social catalysts, making it easier...
Obese Dog Ricky, a smooth-haired, standard Dachshund, is about 15kg overweight. He is just one of the many fat dogs that veterinarian, Dr Rob Zammit, has seen in his clinic lately. Rob has put Ricky on very restricted food rations, with access to water at all times....
Don came across a pair of red-rumped parrots stripping a flannel flower. The flowers were too immature to have set seed, so he guessed the birds might have been feeding on the flower buds. Very little is known about the diet of our native parrots, so it’s often...
There are around 700 species of birds in Australia and they figure very prominently in our natural ecology. Many of them play an important role in the pollination of native plants. Others, such as crimson rosellas (Platycercus elegans), do not. Don showed some crimson...
Don pointed out a group of Crimson rosellas feeding on the fruits of a white cedar tree. It is well known that these fruits are poisonous to humans and livestock, however the rosellas return to this particular tree every year. They eat all the fruit and never seem to...
Over the years, Burke’s Backyard veterinary consultant, Dr Rob Zammit, has been asked hundreds of questions about dogs. The good news is that he’s written all the answers down in a new book titled Dogs – 101 Answers to Commonly Asked Questions. This...
Don advised against feeding meat-eating birds such as kookaburras, currawongs and butcherbirds. They include small birds in their diets, so if you do choose to feed them and their populations build up, you may find that there aren’t many smaller birds around...
The Beautiful Firetail finch (Emblema bella) has an olive back, finely-barred underparts and a bright red rump. The males are blacker underneath than the hens, and the juveniles are duller in colour than the adults. Beautiful firetails live in coastal heathland and...
Don visited Dr Justin Marshall at the University of Queensland’s Department of Vision, Touch and Hearing. Dr Marshall and his colleagues have discovered that the ultraviolet pigments on budgerigars’ feathers play a big role in their attractiveness to...