Stress and a terrible loss....

[Smurf]

So sorry for your loss.

I lost a young parrot finch last year due to my carelessness, he flew out cage door as i was putting in food dish, out through open birdroom door accross landing into bedroom and straight out open window into back garden. Needless to say all doors and windows are always closed now at feeding times. At least when i've escapees inside birdroom it's easy enough to catch them with net.

[MiaCarter]

Oh how awful. I'm so sorry for your loss. How heartbreaking. At least your boy didn't suffer. That's a good thing, at least.

Lots of great ideas mentioned here for blocking the door.

The only thing I might add is to perhaps remove your dog from the area while you're tending to the cages. That way, if someone does escape, you can catch them without any problems.

So perhaps get in the routine of putting your dog outside to go to the bathroom while you're cleaning cages or pop him into a spare bedroom for a few minutes with a treat, so he's out of the way, just in case.

One thing I've learned over the years is that accidents will always happen, no matter how careful you are. So by removing the dogs (and any cats, if you have them) from the equation, you eliminate the deadly part of the equation.

[Derk]

MiaCarter
Good point. Sometimes we miss the obvious.