# Toys for mice



## Teenybits

The mice loves apple sticks hence I am getting the Apple sticks ladder and ring for them.. They can eat and play on it  The white longish thing is cuttlefish bone that is for birds, I thought it might be good for the mice too to add to their simple enclosure


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## Daisy&amp;Peach

That hanging ring thing is super cool  Very nice toys indeed! I could be wrong, but I think I heard cuttlefish is not safe for mice?


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## Teenybits

Oh dear! Cuttlefish isn't? I was reading and came across that it can be given. Do you happen to have the link that says more of it?

Hee Daisy, I feel they can climb and eat it, pretty cool.. I tried giving them one of the parrot hanging toy and it was left pretty much alone so these might work better


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## Torin

All my rodents (various hamster and mouse-type species) have access to cuttlebone. If you like giving them wood you could try for some longer twigs as they're good for balancing on as well.


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## Teenybits

Thanks Torin for your input. Yes it's cuttlebone, not cuttlefish  maybe that's why the misunderstanding. ok.. I notice your suggestion


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## Torin

Teenybits said:


> Yes it's cuttlebone, not cuttlefish  maybe that's why the misunderstanding.


Cuttlebone is the internal shell of the cuttlefish. I wouldn't personally call it a cuttlefish as it's not the living animal nor meat, but it's not technically wrong to do so.


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## Laigaie

I can't think of any reason that cuttlebone would be bad for mice. It's just soft easily digested animal calcium.


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## Lilly

Laigaie said:


> I can't think of any reason that cuttlebone would be bad for mice. It's just soft easily digested animal calcium.


This interested me too so I tried to find any info about it one way or the other, apparently it seems to boil down to some people saying
* They will over eat it so get too much calcium
* It will splinter and hurt them
* The calcium can cause cancer
* It has no benefit for them

Whereas others say that its fine and doesn't much matter whether you give them one or don't, and yet others saying they use it with their mice always and there are no issues like that.

I know hypercalcemia can be dangerous to animals, but I doubt they would ingest enough of the cuttlebone to actually cause that.


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## Teenybits

Lilly, interesting indeed! These little ones I observe does not chomp down much as you mention


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## Laigaie

Calcium...can cause...cancer...

Humans, man. I just can't.


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## Lilly

Laigaie said:


> Calcium...can cause...cancer...
> 
> Humans, man. I just can't.


Actually while I have no idea if this is true with mice, a few studies have found a link between high calcium levels and increased risk of cancer. Obviously it is not the calcium itself but other factors.

This is one that seems to indicate a link with regards to breast cancer in humans and the protein that acts as a calcium pump.

It has also been found that cancer patients often have high levels of calcium, so although it seems to be the result of the cancer in this case, its not too hard to see some people might just associate high calcium and cancer.


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## Laigaie

Aaah! This makes sense! But also mice aren't going to eat more calcium than they need. It's not like it's tasty or anything. But hey, causation-correlation is confusing, and it's not unreasonable to be extra sure that stuff isn't toxic (even though everything is toxic given sufficient dosage and duration).


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