Pet Sitters While on Vacation...

[vickalamode]

We're going to WDW next month and this is the first time we'll need a pet sitter...

DBF always watches his best friend's dog when he goes away and his friend always pays him $80-$100, but his dog is a very energetic and strong pit bull that requires extra attention like DBF going there at least twice a day to walk her and feed her etc. A lot more work than just coming to feed our cats...

We're pretty sure his friend will watch our cats since he always takes care of his dog, but I'm not sure how much we should pay him...he would really only need to come once every other day just to feed them and change their litter box and maybe pay some attention to them, but they shouldn't get lonely since they have each other...we'd probably have him come 4 times over the course of our vacation? I was thinking $50? Does that sound fair? Should I do more?

 

[DawnM]

How many days will you be gone and how many times does the person need to come to your house?

We have had 2 different pet sitters for our two dogs. One does it more professionally and charges $15 per 30 min. visit. We needed 2 visits per day.

The other is a neighbor teen. I pay her $15 per day and she comes twice.

For a cat, the person may only need to come over and make sure it has water and food, so it may not be as big of a deal.

 

[nilseks]

Depends on how far he has to travel. I'm a pet sitter--it I do a cat visit for people in my subdivision, I charge $9. That would be for feeding, change litterbox, give the cats some love, etc. Outside of my subdivision I have to charge more for travel, time, etc. But if he is coming a short distance, I would think $50 would be a nice amount.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

I'm also a pet sitter. I charge $10 per visit for clients who live in my immediate area, but do charge a little more if I have to travel a bit. I would think $50 would be fine for 4 days.

 

[vickalamode]

Thanks everyone...he doesn't live in our town but in a nearby one so maybe $50 + $25 for gas?

 

[kamik86]

If I were to board my 3 cats for my full vacation it would cost me $384. So instead my niece volunteered for the job. She has to drive down each day after school (and she lives an hour away) then she will do her homework at my house and then hang out with her friends or go see her Dad in my town (she lived here until 2 years ago when her family moved and her Dad lives near me). She has to clean there boxes, any messes my cat that doesn't reliably use the box (we are working on this) makes, and give them food and water (one cat has a tendency to knock over the water so I don't want her to only come every other day in case he did this and they then have no water). She will also play with them a bit.

We think we are going to pay her $150 up front. She will get an extra $50 to $100 when we come home, the reason I"m not sure on the amount is my niece tends to clean a lot even if not asked to so if she cleans my house some she will get more but she isn't required to do this. (To give you an idea of what I mean she was at my house last weekend and decided to clean the cat furniture of all the hair that was on it instead of playing a video game with my husband.)