FINCHforum

I have had my goudian (Lucy) for about 3 months. She was young when I bought her and is still going through her first molt. A month or so later she couldn't fly and would fall on the bottom of cage. I took her to local bird store and the owner told me her wing was not broken, it seemed as if she had caught her wing on something because one was raised higher and the other drooped. She hasn't recovered and still cannot fly she just hops from place to place. During the day I only see that she only moves to eat or drink water. She is a little chubby compared to my other gouldian. All of the other birds with her do not sleep next to her. I feel really bad for her because I don't want her to suffer.

then last night around 4 am I heard scuffling on the bottom of cage and I went to check and Lucy was on sitting on the spray millet that was on the floor. I got her to move to a perch where she stayed the rest of the night but I am worried.

What advise do you have?
I appreciate any help.

I would make the cage as Lucy friendly as I could. Make everything easy for her to get to taking her handicap into consideration. Maybe a few ramps so she can get up high? You don't want her stuck on a perch and then have to fall to the bottom and possibly hurt herself because she can't fly.
good luck

Add some more perches or platforms so that she can hop from one to another, kinda like using stairs, to get around the cage. You can add them around the edges, so that you don't fill up the flying room in the middle of the cage for the other birds. You can also put perches at angles, so they act like a ramp, and she can hop/scoot sideways up and down to get to different levels within the cage. Quite a few members here have handicapped finches, you look at what your bird can and cannot do, and then rig up a handicap-accessible cage, and they seem to live quite nicely in it.

Thank you for your responses. I have her cage with perches to help her get to the higher ones. She is in a cage with 3 other pairs of finches and one gouldian but the other gouldian does not sleep next to her. The only birds I've seen her sleep with are the cordons.

could they be avoiding her because she is hurt?

Birds, in the nature, generally leave the sick one, because the sick bird will not survive.
Have you check her flight feathers? One of my gouldians has lost her flight feathers of one wing during transportation and now can not fly. I think she will be just fine after next molting.

Generally gouldians are not cuddly birds so I wouldn't find it unusual at all for other gouldians not to cuddle next to her to sleep.