Updating custom field value with integer instead of string

I need to be able to update a ticket's custom_field value with an integer via ZAF Client request (the field "type" is "integer"). Using the request options below, the request is successful and the correct ticket field is updated, however the value is a String instead of Integer. This isn't a huge issue, but will require parsing the value to an integer when reading it, which isn't ideal. Is there a way to change my request to preserve the value's numeric datatype?

The request looks like this:

const options = {
url:`/api/v2/tickets/${ticketID}.json`,
type:"PUT",
contentType:'application/json',
dataType:"json",
data: JSON.stringify({ticket: {custom_fields: [{id: 1500003010701, value: 12}]}}),
}
client.request(options)

{
    "id": 1500003010701,
    "value": "12"
}