# ( Bluebells) Rodents wanted



## Bluebells

At bluebells we take in small animals that can no longer be cared for, our aim is to re-home your unwanted pets, if they cannot be found a forever home they will remain in our care. Potential new owners will sign a declaration form to ensure they are able to look after their new pet. A minimum donation of £2.50 is required to re-home a pet from Bluebells. Your animals will be in the best possible care with over 15 years experience and qualifications in animal care. We cannot currently re-home rabbits or ferrets .


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## swatton42

£2.50 seems a very low price. Is that the minimum for all species or will things like degu, guinea pigs, chinchilla be more?


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## simplysardonic

Sorry if this sounds a bit rude, but could you please tell us a bit more about yourself, such as are you a registered charity etc, as Google throws up nothing about you &, quite frankly, you could be anyone. My concern would be that you are a private individual who is acquiring free animals to breed from or as snake food, or to sell on at a profit.
I apologise in advance if this isn't the case, but these people do exist


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## Crittery

I agree with previous comments. Please do not be deterred by this as you do need to be prepared to give more background about yourself so people can be sure you are genuine. There are some awful people out there.

I'd love to hear a bit more so I can add you to my rescue map as well since you take in the smaller furries


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## Bluebells

I completely agree with your coments and that there are not very nice people out there but i can ensure you and i am doing this out the goodness of my heart. I ask for a donation when someone wants to re-home an animal to help cover some of the costs i bear to look after them all, in no way do i make a profit or breed animals for snake food. I cannot become a registered charity for the reason i do not take in sick or injured animals. My aim for opening Bluebells was to help people who can no-longer look after their pets, i want to try and find them forever homes otherwise they will remain in my care. I hope not everybody who is looking for a pet goes to a pet shop as there are many lovely animals already out there that need caring for. 
I hope this helps, and will post for more information about myself later!


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## shetlandlover

You are taking in homeless animals, you would not reject a sick or injured homeless animal. You can apply to be a registered charity, except there is a money requirement I believe its £5000 in donations is required before they can accept a registered charity.

I am in the same boat as everyone else, you could be looking to make a quick buck by getting free animals and selling them on or breeding them or feeding them to reptiles.

Maybe you can ask rescues close to you to recommend you, however they will need to come and look at your facilities first and make sure you are legit before they will offer to put you forward. Some rescues do need some help with rodents ect so there is a need there however you will no doubt have to pass multiple rescue checks before other rescues will affiliate with you.

If that makes sense.


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## Bluebells

Thank you for your advice, i will look into it much more. As i am only re-homing on a small scale im not sure i would get that amount of donations but getting other charitys to come and visit to be able to recommend is a great idea.


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## niki87

shetlandlover said:


> You are taking in homeless animals, you would not reject a sick or injured homeless animal. You can apply to be a registered charity, except there is a money requirement I believe its £5000 in donations is required before they can accept a registered charity.
> 
> I am in the same boat as everyone else, you could be looking to make a quick buck by getting free animals and selling them on or breeding them or feeding them to reptiles.
> 
> Maybe you can ask rescues close to you to recommend you, however they will need to come and look at your facilities first and make sure you are legit before they will offer to put you forward. Some rescues do need some help with rodents ect so there is a need there however you will no doubt have to pass multiple rescue checks before other rescues will affiliate with you.
> 
> If that makes sense.


Wow this is really interesting!!


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## swatton42

Just agreeing with previous comments. Last I heard at some scout meeting or another you had to be making at least £3000 in donations a year but not allowing the money to sit in the bank unspent unless it was saving up for specific equipment. 

Although leaders no longer have to be on the executive committee so it may have gone up and we've just not been told about it.




I can understand why you're just asking for a donation for each animal but still £2.50 sounds really small and may attract the type of people looking for something cheap untill they got bored and move onto the next pet. Would you be doing home-checks to support it?


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## shetlandlover

I found this link.

Landing page - Things to think about before setting up a charity



> When your organisation has an income of £5,000 or more you are required by law to register with us.You will be required to submit evidence in the form of a bank statement or latest annual accounts with your application


However....

Landing page - Resources for very small charities

But I would push to get a charity number with the number of charities for animals already around you will need to go the extra mile.

Good luck!


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## GerbilNik

I run a small Gerbil Rescue from my own home and have done so for 3 years now. I think something which makes me wonder about motives etc is mentioning money in your first post about yourself, when really if you aren't "heard" of you should be concentrating more on explaining a bit about yourself and what you plan to achieve etc rather than mentioning rehoming fees as a first point.
Others may not agree with me but doing a sort of "Rodent's Wanted" post doesn't really make me feel comfortable. Perhaps a different wording just to let people know you exist is best. Also you may be bombarded with members of the public giving you all sorts of animals that perhaps you don't know as much as you could about. For example if someone was to come to you with a Gerbil would you know all the best ways to care for that animal?

I know personally the last thing on my mind is donations. I go well out of my way to do homechecks, accommodation checks etc and offer a lot of help and advice first hand before anything else. 

I've spent the three years i've been doing this building up a good reputation (I hope!) and in order to get recommendations from other charities etc I believe the proof is in the pudding and word of mouth is the best sort of "publicity".

I hope this helps a bit, as not trying to put you down or anything, just trying to help.


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