# Spotty swallowed the mouse's tail.



## moggiegirl (May 15, 2005)

Spotty gets really excited about toy mice made with real rabbit fur. So I attached one to a shoelace and a wand to make the perfect interactive cat toy for him. This morning he chewed off part of the mouse's tail and swallowed it. Should I be concerned? He's acting normally and not having any reactions to it so he'll probably just poop it out. I just want to know if this is safe. Considering that the mouse is made from real fur and a cat would probably chew off the tail of a real mouse in the wild and swallow it Spotty's behavior was natural and he does treat these real fur mouse toys as if they're real mice. But other than rabbit fur I don't know what else these toys are made of. Seems like leather or some kind of animal skin. Is it unsafe for cats to chew off and swallow the tails and would it be wise for me to cut off the tails of all the fur mice to make the toys safer for my kitties to play with? I know the tails probably add to the appeal of the mice making them seem even more real. But I don't want to play with my cats irresponsibly. What do you think?


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## racuda (Jan 27, 2006)

It's one of the little leather tails, right?

None of Ralphie's mice have tails. He alwaws eats them first! It has never caused a problem. Don't worry.


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## Sashka (Jan 7, 2005)

I'm sure he'll be OK. Denzel always chews the tails off and eats part of them. I just keep an eye on him over the next day or so to make sure he doesn't look sick, but he's always been fine.


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## moggiegirl (May 15, 2005)

Thank you. Now that I know other peoples cats eat leather mouse tails without problems I think it's hilarious. :lol: :lol: :lol: It really is just skin. Now that the mouse doesn't have the tail anymore(I cut it off out of worry) he's not as interested in that mouse as he used to be). The tails make them look more real. Time to replace the mouse(so he can eat another tail.) :lol:

Racuda, that picture of your kitty is precious.


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## seashell (Dec 5, 2003)

*mouses tail*

That reminds me of an incident withour old family cat, Pete.
My grandad used to shoot rabbits, and my Mum tied a rabbit's tail to a string for Pete to play with. I was only about 5 at the time. I was so excited about Pete's new toy - I was sure I he would have hours of fun with it.
Well as soon as we dangled this in front of him he just made one pounce, tore the tail off the string and swallowed it whole 8O I cried and cried - partly cos I was afraid that swallowing the tail mighthurt him, but also because I was shocked that he didn't play 'nicely' with his toy and just ate it 8O 
Owning pets is a real learning experience for a kid  
The good thing is that Pete did not come to any harm due to this  

seashell


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## ihave4kitties (Aug 27, 2005)

I remember the day we brought Wallace home. I gave him a "mousie" to play with and the first thing he proceded to do was bite off the tail and swallow it, faster than I could blink my eyes it seemed. I knew nothing of this sort of thing and was quite worried for a day. He was fine. I however do cut off all the tails, ears and whiskers of the toy mice. The poor mice look pretty pathetic but my cats still think they are fun. :lol: I think it would really depend upon what the mice are made off. Leather and real fur, as long as not too large pr long seem to me not to be something to worry about but personally, I feel better when I don't have to worry about the eating of tails. :wink:


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