Actually your description was right on for what I meant! They are slightly raised. There is no flaking or peeling, just a bad choice of words on my part! Thank you for info to allow me to give a sigh of relief! Had I seen them I would have asked around before I picked him up but my dad bought him for me for Christmas and brought him over to my house. He is very active and is not showing any signs of illnes. I just looked at some pictures online and most of them do not have the white dots so it just sent up the temporary flag of alarm! Thank you for confirming that it is really nothing to be alarmed about!