Usually my drakes start the laying down /walking stuff around 5-6 weeks old. but you may find supplementing with plain niacin or brewers yeast may help, he maybe deficient in vitamin b3, what are you feeding them? some chicken feeds don't have adequate amounts, it's kind of late for this to be happening though, do you think he may have injured himself some how? I'd still try the plain niacin or brewers yeast though if you don't think he has injured himself. 500 megs per 1 gallon of water usually if it a deficiency it begins to correct it self in a couple of days. I would check his legs and feet for swelling and hot spots which could mean infection though.
Drakes do have thick legs more so than the ducks for sure, but to make sure he isn't injured I'd check him out real good. also look under his feet to be sure no injuries on the bottoms. at 12 weeks they need to be on grower finisher or an all flock feed. you can mix the starter in with the other ones depending on what you decide but I would get them started on the feed for their age. that's one reason why I like Flock Raiser it can be fed from hatch till end.
Yes I have Muscovy's and no drakes don't get to the size of geese other than trough their body. My 2 oldest drakes are probably the size of my goose in body size but my gander is larger through the body. They still have duck legs though.
I believe they are produced for their succulent meat, [white bird white meat] larger than reg Muscovy's. larger table bird. other than that I don't think there is any difference. They are sure beautiful birds. I have 3 solid white Muscovies [not French whites] and I can say this about them they don't very seldom look white. we have had a lot of rain this year and it reflects on those white feathers just how much they like to be in the mud.
