Change in behaviour after escaping for 10 days

Hi there,
Our Alex, Rio managed to escape (neighbours kid accidentally let it out), he was out for 11 days and then we received a call to say he’d been spotted nearby. Before he escaped he was tame, talked and and was always happy. Since returning (2 days ago) he has been silent, not even a squeak ( with exception of a shriek when the vet examined him and a little beak grinding at night) and he will not go near any of us ... he is shying away and flying off when he is approached. The vet did say he is ok, he’s been attacked and lost lots of feathers and has some bruising. He also was reported to have flown into an upstairs window and hit the floor . We are happy to retrain him and will put in the hours of course and we will love him and give him time to get well. Has anyone else heard of birds forgetting/ not wanting to speak or becoming untame? If anyone has any advice We would gladly welcome it. We Will try anything to get even a tiny bit of our lovely boy back....maybe he will just need time and attention? He isn’t being very aggressive and is taking treats and food by hand. :green2

Welcome back, Rio! First, let me ask if you are absolutely sure this is the same bird? Presuming it is, the trauma and stress of life in the wild will take some time to process. Rio may need to relearn "trust" again, even though the temporary loss was not your fault. Time and love will make the difference!

I was going to say the EXACT same thing Scott. Are you sure he is you bird? Because it could very easily be another bird unless he has some markings that you know it's him.

Moving on from that thought..I think it is possible for a bird who was attacked and had the living daylights scared out of him to regress really far back to being in the wild. Especially since he was actually in the actual wild. What if we dropped you off for 11 days to fend for yourself without food or water and you had no idea how to live in the wild and then you got attacked. I think you would be really really freaked out too. I am sure you can retrain him in due time. Good luck to you!

He seemed to recognise my 4 year old who is his bestie, he is the only one of his type/ size/age etc been reported lost within a 20 mile radius within the last few years after numerous google searches and checking the National lost bird registers etc, He does turn to us if I click to him the way I have always called him and our av said he believes it is the same bird so we are quite sure it’s Rio. It is like he is mute, he did get pretty badly beaten up and fell quite far too. Will give him time.

Oh gosh I’m so glad you got him back. I hope that he becomes his old self soon. I can’t imagine how terrified he must have been.


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Surely he is traumatised. Imagine some ordeal equivalent to a human you'd be hospitalised with psychiatric help or put in a coma for a week to try and let you heal physically and mentally. I would think he needs TLC, total calm, nothing but obvious love and treats and absolutely no demands until he shows interest in living again.

He sounds as if he's in the very best place to find his old self but I wouldn't even think about a time scale. Let him be, treat him like he's new to you with all the careful bonding tricks that we all use and wait. He'll be back.