Weird & Wonderful...

Slate is a diluted tri. Sometimes referred to as a Maltese colour. It is not a colour most would ever see in their lifetime. He should have been a tri colour. Wherever there is grey, it should be black. His nose and eye rim are black, so he could not be confused with a lethal silver. A lethal silver rarely lives past 2 weeks of age and they have no pigmentation whatsoever. He also has grey eyes so he couldn't be a blue merle.

This puppy is the result of a bi-factored blue merle and a bi-factored tri. A Maltese can occur in any coloured breeding. Maltese colours are born this way they don't turn this colour after they grow up. Maltese acting on a black coat produces the grey puppy shown. Maltese sables are a straw or champagne colour. Maltese blues are a self-coloured silver with various shades of grey but no black. He is one of two puppies in the litter. The littermate is normal coloured. She is a bi-blue. This puppy has an incredible personality, and he is such a sweetheart.