Hollow spot (dimple?) on Muscovy drake chest

[Skye'sDucks]

Now I dont want to run to the duck community here screaming, 'Something is wrong with my duck!!!!!' (Because there isnt, and I'm not) But, after a few searches on Google, I quickly gave up as I do not think I have or can get the magic of finding the answer to my question online...

So for a while now (at least a week I believe. Havent paid attention) it looked as if my drake lost some feathers on his chest: no big deal, maybe got in a scuffle with another duck.
I then decided to look at it, I dont think I did the first time I saw it, though. (I think the second time i saw it when it didnt go away) When I press on that area, there are still feathers and skin, no wound. But when pressed it's like this hollow spot, or dimple. A little bigger than my thumb, but not much.

And like I said, I dont want to run screaming thinking something is wrong with him

Hes fine, perfectly normal. I'm just curious am I creating a fuss for no reason? Is it just simple anatomy?

I dont remember any of my ducks having a hollow spot like that...what do you guys think?

Pictures: (hes a 1 yo muscovy drake)

It looks worse than it typically does, more caved in, because I had already felt it again, plus hes wet from a swim.

It's on the left side and no, I'm not throttling him....he was chasing one of his hens, but I had made my decision to get pictures, so I was holding him back. I made up my mind and was doing this tonight! so he had to suffer letting the hen get away lol

 

[The Dapper Duck]

Might just be a bad feather-do at the top of the keel/wishbone? It doesn't look that strange in the pictures. Did you feel the hens to see if they have a similar dimple?

 

[Jpat]

Hey there, I cry wolf here constantly haha

So thats a handsome muscovy, funny face hes making while your holding him haha

Do you mean the space between his breasts? You seid to the left but i only see the space between his breasts

@Miss Lydia has muscovies Mabye she will stop by and help

 

[Miss Lydia]

I haven’t ever noticed that on my Muscovy drake. But that isn’t saying he doesn’t have this indention I’ll have to check him out tomorrow. He does look thin though what do you feed your ducks?

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Might just be a bad feather-do at the top of the keel/wishbone? It doesn't look that strange in the pictures. Did you feel the hens to see if they have a similar dimple?

What do you mean by a bad feather? It certainly doesn't look strange, but like I said, I wanted to check that he wasn't hiding an injury, which was when I felt the oddly hollow spot. It's not on the center of his chest, it's more to his right side/breast, in the picture it looks like the left side.

I did check one of my hens and didn't feel any dimple on her, nor did I see any feathers out of place. I didn't even think to check the hen he was chasing, since I wanted to catch him for pictures.

Hey there, I cry wolf here constantly haha

So thats a handsome muscovy, funny face hes making while your holding him haha

Do you mean the space between his breasts? You seid to the left but i only see the space between his breasts

@/Miss Lydia has muscovies Mabye she will stop by and help

Oh, I'm a nervous nelly about my animals.

Thank you! Ha, he wasn't happy with me, I had to keep my hand where it is in the pic to control his head better so he wouldn't bite me. Usually a sweet duck, not at that moment though lol.

I actually misspoke anatomy wise, it's on HIS right, but to my eye it's the left. It's not in the middle, it's more to his right, my left, as I just said.

I haven’t ever noticed that on my Muscovy drake. But that isn’t saying he doesn’t have this indention I’ll have to check him out tomorrow. He does look thin though what do you feed your ducks?

I would have never thought to look for an indention except for the fact that he was oddly missing a few outer layer feathers, and it isn't a bald spot.

I do know he looks thin. If you remember my threads from before, where you helped me, I had just been letting my ducks free-range and didnt' give them any feed. This drake was the only duck that got skinny, so we got him some scratch grain which we thought was enough, didn't know it wasn't good nutritionally. Totally on us, our mistake as newbie owners. We're feeding them now; you corrected me so we got all flock. It's Nutrena all flock, stupid me forgot to take a picture of the bag, but thankfully it was only 1 of 2 kinds at TSC so I was able to find it easy online. This is the kind:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/nutrena-naturewise-all-flock-pellet-40-lb-bag?cm_vc=-10005

I've been feeding him for a few months now, I don't think I marked down the exact date we started to feed him that...Sigh. Usually I'm more organized. Strangely, he was picking up weight at a good rate, but it's suddenly like he isn't gaining anymore. Haven't weighed him. I feed once a day and let them free range, so I'm going to start feeding twice a day to see if that fattens him up. All the other ducks are doing fine and are normal weights with this feeding scheduled, so I don't know why he's the odd man out. He eats as much as the others.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Is he low man on totem pole? Being chased around? This indention could just be part of his low weight. I’d def feed 2x a day and make sure he isn’t being kept from eating.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

He's mellowed out a lot from the start and isn't that fierce anymore. He used to be the big scary drake and now he's very sweet and doesn't get very worked up anymore, ha. So yes, I could say he's lower on the totem pole.

I've never really seen the other ducks actually chase him around, if anything, he's racing after them to keep up.

I do stand and watch to make sure he gets enough, and usually there is no problem. I may take him into our backyard (where it's fenced and separate) at least once a day of the two feeding times to make sure he gets enough.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’ll check my big guy in the morning too.

 

[The Dapper Duck]

What do you mean by a bad feather?

I meant "feather-do" like a "hair-do". Bad joke I guess :/

I would echo @Miss Lydia and say more feed. I also "pasture" my ducks on our lawn as their main source of food, like you, but we supplement with game bird feed every couple days. Long story short, we added in some birds who were younger and one of our hens did not like them feeding, so she would chase them off and they ended up a little skinny. So then we started feeding in two locations on opposite sides of the yard so everyone got their share. They put weight on but still not quite like the older birds have, so maybe the damage was done when they were growing.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Oh, I get it, it's not a bad joke lol my brain was too slow to catch it.

Alright, thank you for the input. My drake was full grown when this happened, so I don't know if he'll just be a skinnier bird, or if he will be able to plump up. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what extra feed does.