Einsteins_Mom

The doors are the usual outside-access feed doors that swing out of a cage. (I've got one of King's Cages) It used to work to distract him with a walnut to get him to move across the cage, but now he's decided he'd rather hold his ground on the water bowl and try to get out, rather than go for the nut. If I could teach him to say "cuckoo!" when he pops his head out, I might have a good trick to show off to friends. lol

My 1 1/2 year old Congo African Grey, Einstein, has become quite the escape artist. Whenever I, or my husband, go to change his water or feed him he perches on the dish in the access door and crawls out of it when we open to door to remove the dish. Not a big deal for me, as I am "his" person and I can tell him to step up and place him back inside the main door. He's not too fond of my husband, so he has to use the "step-up stick" as we call it (it's just a perch my husband made out of a dowel) to put him back inside. Does anyone know of a cage that has a mechanism to prevent parrots from crawling out the access doors? Or if there's a way to train him not to do this? This has become quite the game for Einstein and he does it every night, even though we don't encourage it at all. I don't communicate with him at all when he does it, I just issue the step up command and place him back in his cage. We would like to go away for a few days next year, but I'm leary to leave Einstein in light of this new challenge. My 20 year old son normally cares for him while we're away, but he won't be comfortable handling Einstein if he escapes through the access doors. How have others handled this problem? I can't believe my little guy is unique in this!