How much to pay a cat sitter.

[Sherri]

Yes, its that time again for our family to go on vacation. We have a neighbor who usually cat sits for us. He is about 14 years old (a friend of my son's who lives on our street). I usually pay $5.00 per day and ask for one visit per day for the indoor cats, the visit lasts five minutes if that. Then I ask for one additional time for the outdoor cats, just to make sure the water is cool and clean for them in the heat. That usually takes about three additional minutes. My daughter used to do pet sitting for two dollars a visit, so I thought that was fair. Now I am not quite sure if I feel it is enough. No mail collection or watering plants are involved with this visit.
I haven't heard back from him if he can do it for this next vacation or not. I really hope so as we don't have many other options.
Just wondering what others pay.

 

[MickeyMike]

We have used a professional "sitting" service several times. The charge was $9 a day. That included staying for one hour and giving attention to the cat and its needs. Also, checking the mail and watering plants.

 

[Sherri]

WOW!!!! Thats a bargain for an hour. You are lucky.

 

[Saphire]

I give my sister $100 for one week, but I do ask her to stay for an hour or so daily to spend time with the cats. If it were a teen neighbor, I think $50 for the week sounds reasonable, and maybe a small gift from WDW, if that's where you are going.

 

[ImMarcik]

I paid my co-worker $100 for my 10 day vacation, but she came every other day. BUT she did scoop out some litter and pick up the plant they knocked down. She thought it was too much but I was just thankful she did all that.

 

[taekwondo mom]

DD takes care of our neighbors cat, takes in the mail .. $ 5 a day
Then we pay the neighbors son $5 a day to take care of our dog ..
It works out for the kids... ( the only then is we are gone alot more than them .. due to DD playing travel softball, basketball and taekwondo..so he racks up)

 

[JimboInLimbo]

You pay someone to sit on your cat?
As a parent and neighbor, I wouldn't LET you pay more than $5/day for that. It is more than enough for what they're doing.
Have a great trip.

 

[CheshireVal]

My pet sitter charges $15 per visit for our two cats. She cleans the litter, feeds them, and supposedly spends 20 minutes there interacting with them. (Of course we have no way of knowing whether this actually happens or not!)

She works for a big pet sitting company, though, and that's their standard fee.

 

[TheDisneyTraveler06]

I agree- $5 a day sounds like a fair price.

 

[jspahn]

I use a professional sitter - shes actually the vet tech at a local vet.
She charges $22 a day - and spends 30 minutes at the house. Cleans the litterbox, puts down wet food for a treat and plays with them - I have 3 kitties.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

When I have someone come for just our cats (as opposed to leaving our dogs at home, too, which is a whole new ballgame), we pay an adult petsitter $15/day. But she has to drive to our house, sift out the litterboxes, feed the cats, and change the water. I'm not sure how long it takes her, but more than 5 minutes for sure. That was when we had 2 or at one time 3 cats. Now we have 4 cats, but we plan to leave the dogs home this summer and won't be using her.

For a neighbor I think $5/day would be ok, but it seems that sifting the box, feeding, and changing the water would take longer than you are thinking. Maybe not if you only have one cat, but you want to make sure that you are paying enough to make it worth his while.

 

[Sherri]

I say five minutes because the cats usually hide so I don't ask him to stay and play with them. They only like their family (snobs-lol).
I have a litter box upstairs and one downstairs. I keep two dishes downstairs and one upstairs. It is really quick to do (but then again it can be because we have it down to a science). Anyway, I am starting to panic since I haven't heard back from him. I hope I hear something today. We are going to be gone 16 days. I hate to be a pest about it.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

You can bet it takes a teen who isn't used to doing it twice as long as it would take you (and it would take your own teen half as long as if would take you, at least that's how it works in our house ). For 16 days I would pay at least $100, probably more than that since that's a long time for them to be tied down. At least with cats a person can be a bit flexible when they come to the house, unlike with dogs.

I know what you mean about cats that hide. One of our current cats hide and our pet sitter is always afraid that he's escaped (he's inside only). Same with a cat we used to have. Before we go away the next time I'm going to get Feliway that is supposed to help with cat stress. Might help the cats be a little more social. .

 

[ckay87]

Isn't minimum wage like 5-something an hour? So if you give the kid $5 per visit - even if he's there for 30 minutes, he's getting a wage of 10 bucks per hour? Call me cheap, but I never made that at 14. For the responsibility and labor of it all, 5 bucks is plenty. This stuff is getting out of hand.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Isn't minimum wage like 5-something an hour? So if you give the kid $5 per visit - even if he's there for 30 minutes, he's getting a wage of 10 bucks per hour? Call me cheap, but I never made that at 14. For the responsibility and labor of it all, 5 bucks is plenty. This stuff is getting out of hand.

It may be, but the fact of the matter is that she needs a pet sitter for her cats for a relatively short period of time. She doesn't want to have to worry about someone showing up and them being taken care of. If paying an extra dollar or 2 a day is going to make the difference, it seems worth it to me. It's not as if it's a 3 times a day job, letting dogs in and out which can really add up. Of course maybe it's not a money issue at all, in which case offering the money won't make a difference.

 

[Sherri]

I will give him $100.00 if he ever calls me back. If not I am going to be so stuck. My other neighbor would do it i'm sure, but she isn't really an animal person and her kids are the type that would chase animals since they are so little. But I do figure that since my cats hide that really wouldn't come into play.

 

[Sherri]

I am SO relieved and happy! I got my cat sitter, he knows the drill and I am going to pay him $100.00 for the time. When I tell DH that we will be paying him $20.00 more I am going to remind him what a real pet sitter costs and how lucky we are to have someone who lives so close and is so reliable do it for us.