*Flower*
No matter what kind of pet or pets you have, it's important to get someone who will know how to take care of the type of animals you have. While it might be easier to leave your pets with the next door neighbor or the kid down the street, you should think about your animals well being and make sure you find someone who will be able to handle an emergency situation if one arises.
For animals like dogs, cats and birds there are kennels that have very good services and well trained people to look after your pets. If you don't know the best kennels to take your pets to, you can always ask the local humane society or if you are involved in online forums for your particular pet, you could ask there. Or you can hire a family member or family friend to take care of your pet while you are gone.
For exotic animals like, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and gerbils there are local and online rescue sites that cater to individual animal species. A rat rescue would be the ideal place to get information on rat sitters just as a hamster rescue would be to find ideal hamster sitters and so on.
If you decide to have neighbors or family members watching your animals, always make sure to have a check list with veterinarians phone numbers, an emergency phone number to contact you as well as any important information such as medications, allergies, foods to avoid etc. Ask the pet sitter if they are willing to take the pet to a veterinarians office if they become sick and if the answer is no, find another sitter.
Make sure to go over the check list with the pet sitter before you leave and ask questions to make sure they understand what to do in case of an emergency or how to give medications and how to feed and care for the animal.
You should make sure to provide all necessary supplies such as food, treats, leashes, bedding, medicine, toys, extra water bottles (in case your rat or hamster chews through one) and any other supplies you want the sitter to use.
In the case of dogs, make sure to tell them how often they should be walking them and feeding them. For cats, let them know how often to clean the litter box and for small animals such as rats, hamsters and gerbils let the sitter know how often to clean the cage, supply food and change the water.
If you cannot find someone who is knowledgeable about your particular type of pet and are going to be leaving your animal with someone inexperienced with your animals, be sure to show them the basics before you leave. How to care for your pet including things like cleaning up after dogs on a walk, cleaning cages, preparing food, giving medicine, how to handle small animals and refill a water bottle and put it back in the right place.
Finding someone who isn't afraid of your animals is a very necessary part of finding a great pet sitter as well. You wouldn't want someone who is afraid of cats watching your kitty for a week while you are gone or someone afraid to handle your rats or hamsters while they are in their care. Always have them pet, pick up or handle the pet they are going to watch. If it looks like they are afraid or wanting to avoid contact you should find someone else.
When you do find a good pet sitter, you can leave them in their care with out being stressed out or having your animals stressed out.
Excellent advice, Mary. We always put our dog in the kennel when we go on holiday. It's something we budget for along with our holiday because we know Bella will be safe and well looked after.
ReplyDeleteThe cats would have a fit if put in a kennel, i usually get my brother to watch them. Don't trust too many people with them. Dogs are easier kennel wise. Oh more butts to sniff, yippee lol and off they go.
ReplyDeleteShelley- A good kennel is a good thing to find.
ReplyDeletePat- My hubby dog sits for his sister when they go on vacation too.
Oh such a good post. I've had to help a couple times over the years when the person someone asked to watch their herd screwed up and they needed help.
ReplyDeleteit is difficult when you're out in the country and have horses and 4 big dogs that are used to be treated like spoiled babies. :) we do have some animal sitters that have advertised in the area, though.
ReplyDeleteWe never had to worry much. We would take a vacation for about 2 days. Back when my dog used to stay mostly outside, we had our neighbor go in our backyard to make sure her food and water was filled
ReplyDeleteGood advice! Thankfully, my beautiful-hearted MIL would stop by for us if we had to be gone. She hates cats and she would do it for us anyway taking the best care of the kitties. We always brought her back cool prezzies and watched her dog while she was gone. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen we got our rats we weren't anticipating going on any trips for a while and then I made contact with my Mum again and we wound up spending a week in Wales.
ReplyDeleteMy number one criteria for someone to look after them was someone who had experience of rats before, and I got really lucky as a colleague at work loved having them and took fantastic care of them.
I think having someone to watch your pet while you're away is one of those things that not everyone thinks about when they're planning a new pet. :-)