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...
Sexing Peewees While filming a segment for Burke’s Backyard, Don noticed a pair of peewees foraging in his garden. Peewee (Grallina cyanoleuca) The peewee or Australian magpie-lark is also known as the mudlark, because it builds its nest from mud. The mud nest...
Soccer Budgie Don visited Mervyn and Sally Abrams and their amazing budgie, Beau. Beau uses his cage as a home base, but from 7am to 7pm he has free range of the house. He starts by having breakfast with Merve and Sally, helps them to do a crossword or two, then goes...
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...
Radiographer, Emese Gal, suffers from a rare genetic disease called Neurofibromatosis 2 (also called Central Bilateral Acoustic NF) which causes tumours to grow on both auditory nerves. Emese lost her hearing three years ago, but thanks to a stray dog and the Lions...
Don visited the Animal Eye Care Clinic in East Malvern, Victoria. He talked with specialist veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr Robin Stanley, about the incidence of hereditary eye diseases in dogs. As well as treating these diseases, the clinic performs regular eye...