Nibbles Rodent & Rabbit 2023 updates

[Nibbles Rescue]

Hello and a happy new year!

With a small flurry of adoptions happening at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 we are trying to have a positive outlook on the year ahead but it's a already been a hard slog with such a huge drop in donations during 2022 its left us in a pickle of needing to stall rabbit numbers so our outgoings don't increase while simultaneously needing to have a huge push (in what we all know can be worst month for donations) to raise funds to get us back into a position of security for the rest of the year! We are tentatively positive that we can make it work and hopefully open ourselves back open to accepting new rabbits.

We have many small projects that need to be completed in the next few months. Repairs and maintenance are never ending and whilst its winter, makes for a tricky time to complete them!


As always, thank you all for your support for nibbles during 2022 and going forward into 2023!
Team Nibbles

[Nibbles Rescue]

Hello All

Since the end of January we have managed to get some donations coming in which has allowed us to accept new rabbits in to nibbles, which was a huge sigh of relief to know that Nibbles is doing what it should, helping rabbits and rodents!

We have also had confirmation that the previous 4 single adoptions have all been bonded with their partners

In much sadder news we lost two of the Nibbles family last week, Vinnie and Penguin were the first buns to become permanent residents at the rescue back in May 2016. These boys arrived suffering from untreated Pasteurella, EC and general neglect and we really didn’t think they would make it past the first month. However, the boys had such a will to live that they did indeed respond to treatment and although neither fully recovered from their traumatic pasts they both had a good quality of life and their symptoms were managed with medication. These boys arrived as a bonded pair, and while it is our policy to neuter all rabbits coming into our care, their overall health, especially with Penguin, left the risks too great. These boys were utterly unique, and their bond was so strong, that there was nothing to gain from neutering. In all their time at Nibbles, we never saw them apart, where Vinnie went, Penguin was not far behind. When you peeked into their pen, they would be snuggled together or grooming each other. We have no idea how old the boys were when they arrived in our care. Their health and general condition were so poor it was impossible to guess, however, we believe they were at least 2 years and possibly 3-4 years.

In November, Vinnie’s overall health started to decline further and while we’d kept him comfortable, last week it became obvious that we were out of options and his overall quality of life was compromised. After much deliberation, and taking Penguin’s overall failing health into account and how the loss of his soulmate would impact his remaining days, we made the very difficult decision to let both boys go together peacefully. You really had to know these boys to understand just how devoted they were to each other and Penguin relied heavily upon Vinnie for his overall comfort, support and happiness. The final gift we could give him was to follow Vinnie on this final journey, just as he followed Vinnie everywhere in life.

Hopefully March is kinder to our hearts and the flurry of new bunnies brings us all a little joy!

As always, Thank you all for your continued support of Nibbles!

[Nibbles Rescue]

Unfortunately March has not been kind to Nibbles and we are experiencing our first suspected RHD cases, We lost Willow and her mum Buffy within 24hours of each other a nearly 3 weeks ago now. So far they have been the only deaths, we are hoping that our biosecurity between each pen will save the rest of the rabbits but as we all know, its so easily transmitted that even with all these steps in place we may still have more deaths. We were lucky in the respect that we have been able to get full lab tests done but we are still waiting for the results unfortunately.

I hope every other rescue has had a better time of it last month!

I hopefully will have a much better update for you next month.

Thank you all for your kind support, Team Nibbles.

[Nibbles Rescue]

April came and went in a total blur, we spent the month in lockdown with a huge effort from our team we've disinfected the whole place everyday. It really was a huge team effort with us now being a few months away from the deaths of Willow and Buffy we have definitely breathed a sigh of relief especially after finally getting the results that it was definitely RHD2.

I feel like I say it every month but I really do hope we are on the up now and we can have a moment to relax.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through the past few months, words really can't convey quite how much it has meant to Nibbles.

Thank you,
Team Nibbles

[Nibbles Rescue]

May update!

May has been a totally mixed bag for us, on one hand we have rehomed 3 guinea pigs ( and another 2 at the very end of April) and 1 rabbit! We also neutered 5 animals, but funding is continuing to be a major issue for us. We have continued to stay afloat with generous donations but mainly due to grant funding which is unpredictable (although incredibly welcome!). Our monthly income is way below our outgoings, with increasing cost of living issues, everyone is feeling the pinch and that goes for not only individuals but also organisations like Nibbles.

We continue to try and come up with new fundraising ideas though and we certainly haven't given up on the long term goals for Nibbles but we definitely need a little breather from the constant worries about money and the future. With that in mind, we are reducing our housing (hopefully only very temporarily) to try and bring our outgoings down more inline with our income. It's been a rough time for all at Nibbles but hopefully with a bit of luck and a few more donations Nibbles will be back in full force soon! We will be reducing down to 14 housing units, whilst it will be sad to see the other housing empty we are still firmly looking at the long term outlook which is staying open and able to help rabbits in need even if that will mean fewer than normal, for a while at least.

Thank you to everyone for their continued support,
Team Nibbles!

[Nibbles Rescue]

June update!

Finally a ray of light for us with a small flurry of adoptions in recent weeks, including Caleb, Martha, Mabel, Spook and Angel!! what a fantastic change from recent months and although we also have the devastating news of having to close some of our rabbit housing and the rodent cabin. I can honestly say that seeing rabbits go off to their forever (hopefully as long as bonding goes well) homes has really improved everyone's mental health in the rescue!

Lets hope that July is kind to us all and more buns find the homes they deserve.

Thank you all for your support, it means the world to us and is changing the lives of buns, one at a time!!

[Nibbles Rescue]

July update!

With the flurry of adoptions last month I am delighted to say Caleb, Martha, Spook and Mabel are all offically bonded!! Whoop Whoop!

We have also managed to increase monthly donations so are able to reopen one of our rabbit kennels to take in another bun! We have also said a hopefully permanent goodbye to Winnie who arrived with us a few months ago, She hasn't had the easiest time of things so we are utterly delighted that she headed off to a lovely home, Paws crossed for a easy bonding!

Thank you to everyone in the PAP community, your support has been amazing and we are so grateful!

[Nibbles Rescue]

August update!

August has been a month for tidying, clearing and finally getting rid of our huge pile of 'scrap'. To say we are delighted to finally have most things cleared from the rescue and have things looking tidy and clean is an understatement! It's been a long time coming but we have managed to cut back all the overgrown trees, bushes and weeds, get rid of so many broken/damaged and unusable housing (mainly for the tiny critters) and finally be on track for hopefully laying mud matting at our entrance ways now to prevent the inevitable welsh mud that is soon to develop!

We have also had 3 new arrivals at the rescue, a beautiful bonded pair of females and a single female, we are hoping their stay at Nibbles will be short and they will land themselves the forever homes they deserve!

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of Nibbles!

[Nibbles Rescue]

September update
The struggle continues to get more funding and keep Nibbles sustainable but we are slowly increasing our monthly donations, with ever £1 added to the monthly pot means we are getting closer and closer to reopening another kennel and helping more buns!
We are also now in full autumn mode, making sure we have a bigger stock of hay stored incase of bad weather etc and although with the latest mini heatwave you wouldn't be able to tell we are now in autumn! we had 4 rabbits needing boosters during sept so the money from the monly draw will be going towards that cost, thank you to everyone for your continued support! We are eternally grateful.

See you next month!

[Nibbles Rescue]

October update!

Well October has come and gone in the blink of an eye and dare I say it the Christmas break will be upon us before we know it!
We have ground to a halt on adoptions currently which leaves us with very little time this year to rehome anymore buns, although these animals will always be safe with us here at Nibbles it is incredibly upsetting to see some of these buns still sat in rescue years after being surrendered, many (most) of these buns are the quieter, shyer and more reclusive buns such as Taco and Ben.
Hopefully they will find their forever homes soon but thanks to all the wonderful support we have received they are safe and cosy in the rescue to wait it out for that elusive forever home.

Thank you to everyone for your support as always,
Team Nibbles