FINCHforum

I set up a pair of goulds into a new breeding cage a couple days ago. Now the hen seems to have lost the ability to fly. She is VERY healthy looking, very chipper, eating and drinking, not flluffed at all, but can't seem to fly. I looked at her wings, all seems OK. Very mysterious. The cage is long, not tall, and I angled a perch accross lengthwise that allows her to get to the higher perches and dishes and she seems to be doing fine. She hops around and chirps, and jumps from perch to perch if she can make it. Any ideas????

Is it possible she could have been injured somehow in the switch to the new cage?
Some more minor soft tissue injuries wouldn't necessarily be visible on examination. (Think of a sprained ankle -- it's not a super obvious injury, but it's enough to prevent you from walking.)

If she seems otherwise healthy and in good spirits, I would treat her as though she's injured. (Make sure food/water/perches/etc. are within her reach, give her some extra nutrients, a heat lamp or heat pad, etc. )

If she's hand friendly (you mentioned you examined her), I might return her to the old cage if she's not improved within a few days, just to see if it's an odd quirk where something about the new cage makes her hesitant to fly?

I've had this happen to one of my hens too. One day she was flying around and the next day she was confined to the bottom of the flight. I moved the water source to the bottom and a few perches. A few weeks and she is flying again. I think it was a minor injury like MiaCarter mentioned. One her wings was held slightly lower than the other, but no flight feathers were missing.

I've had that happen too, with one of my hens. Her first clutch had just fledged the nest and she would feed them outside the nest. I noticed she was staying at the bottom of the cage and couldn't fly up to a perch. I looked her over, but couldn't tell anything. I made sure she had access to seed and water, and she was better after a few days. Very odd.