# Cuttle bone from beach



## Radiated (Mar 16, 2012)

I found a cuttle bone on the beach, can i use it? Its HUGE!!! and good 

Thanks


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## pdrobber (Mar 16, 2012)

wow that's cool. pic? I'm not sure about using it...but you have to figure, where do they get store bought ones? farmed cuttlefish?


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Mar 16, 2012)

I don't think store-bought cuttle "bones" come from real cuttle fish anymore. Cuttle fish are cephalopod mollusks (like octopus, squid, and nautilus), and their cuttle bone is made of calcium carbonate, like the shells of snails. This is in contrast to the calcium phosphate bones of true fish and other vertebrates, like turtles and us. The cuttle bones we buy at the store are made of calcium sulfate, and I think they are artificially manufactured for mass production.

So, Radiated, how big is this cuttlefish bone you seem to have found?


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## Radiated (Mar 16, 2012)

Its around 21 cm a bit more than 8 inches. Its definitely real cuttlefish bone, can i just put into the enclosure like that? It has sand on it and is taken right from the beach. Should i disinfect if or wash it...or do smt? Is this better than artificial or is the artificial one better?


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## Akronic (Mar 16, 2012)

you could boil it in water for a hour or two. thats what i do w/ drift wood before i use it in my aquariums

and i think what the consensus is that it's not really the same thing. so NO the industry still uses the name cuttle bone but they dont actually come from cuttle fish anymore at least.


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## Laura (Mar 16, 2012)

can you post a picture? 
and why wouldnt what we buy in the store be the real thing? 

http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/cuttlefish-bone.html

looks real to me...


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## Tyrtle (Mar 16, 2012)

I think the ones I got are real as well as they are all different sizes. If they were manufactured I would expect them to be all the same.


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## pdrobber (Mar 16, 2012)

...and not have that hard side that is useless. or be called cuttlebone. lol. I'm sure they probably make calcium blocks in the shape of cuttlebone but I also feel it's the real thing.


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Mar 16, 2012)

I'm sure some suppliers do have real cuttlefish bone; the ones in the link above do look natural. Cuttlefish bone is homologous to the pen of a squid, which looks like this:







But I rather doubt there are enough cuttlefish in the ocean to supply the pet trade with all those millions of "bones." The ones you buy in packages also seem rather chalky in texture, not to mention regular in size and shape. They must be artificial.

The only problem with giving a tortoise real shells from large mollusks is that if they break up into sharp shards, they could potentially slice up your tortoise's gut. Small garden snails are fine, but I wouldn't let my tortoise gnaw on any real shells, pens, or bones from large mollusks.


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## Radiated (Mar 17, 2012)

Can u tell if the gut has been sliced open?
How can u tell?


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Mar 17, 2012)

Radiated said:


> Can u tell if the gut has been sliced open?
> How can u tell?



Well, it's like dogs. Dogs are adapted to eating bones, and it's okay to give them cooked mammal bones to gnaw on, like beef hips, ribs, etc. Birds bones, however, splinter once they've been cooked, so even though it's easy for a dog to eat them, they run the risk of getting their intestines cut by the sharp ends. If this happens, the dog may or may not be in pain, and his appetite may or may not be affected, depending on how bad the injury is. But if you see blood in the stool after he has eaten cooked bird bones, then he might need medical help. I would say the same thing applies to a turtle that eats sharp shells. If you see blood in the stool, the gut wall has probably been lacerated (scraped or cut). Depending on how bad it is, the turtle might only need soft food for a while, or he might need surgery.

Turtles naturally eat small garden or pond snails, both for the protein in the meat, and the calcium in the shell, and their gut can resist laceration by the shards. However, I would not give them shells from much larger mollusks, like sea snails, squids, or real cuttlefish unless I was certain that all they could do was gnaw on it, and not break a piece off and swallow it. The nice thing about fake cuttlefish bones is that they are basically just a calcium block, so they just have a chalky texture and can't cut the birds or turtles that eat them.

Actually, a lot of tortoise- and box turtle-keepers separate the backing of a cuttle bone from the softer part, because being more rigid and more similar to a real cuttlefish bone in appearance and texture, it could be dangerous if the turtle breaks a piece off and swallows it. Even with birds (which the product was originally for), you're supposed to hang it on the bird cage so the soft side faces the bird. Again, this is so the bird can safely scrape its beak against the material and swallow some if it wants to, without fear of getting intestinal lacerations.

Myself, I don't separate the backing from the softer face of a cuttle bone. Partly this is because scraping away at it makes a horrendous sound, like running your nails against a chalkboard. But more importantly, I think there is very little risk of a tortoise or box turtle breaking off a piece of the backing and swallowing it. My tortoises barely touch their cuttlebone in the first place, probably because I supplement their diet with calcium and vitamin D3 powder, and because they get plenty of hard vegetable stalks to gnaw on, so they don't really seem to feel the need to gnaw on their cuttlebone. If they do, I doubt if they'll go for the backing.

If you like, however, you can buy ZooMed "Turtlebone," which is basically just the soft calcium block without the hard backing on it at all:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15465


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