Pet / house sitters

[mrsbloggett]

I'm planning a special holiday next march and am thinking about getting a house / pet sitter in instead of arranging individual care for the menagerie. Has anyone used this sort of service before and have any good / bad experiences? (please PM me with any specific info).

Pony is on DIY livery, 5 mins from my house, would a sitter be willing to travel to "do" pony? How much did you pay for a weeks cover? I'm thinking that it may be cheaper or at least more convenient than individual care for them all.

Thoughts gratefully received.

 

[Thistle]

The agencies are VERY expensive. A local groom lives in with mine whilst we are away. She stlii goes out to work but pops back during the day.

 

[ihatework]

I used to do this sort of thing in my summer holidays when I was a Uni student and my rates were a lot cheaper than an official pet sitting service. Might be worth asking around the area to see if someone could recommend a trustworthy student.
I'd have asked about £100 for the week to include one horse (minus riding, and house sitting/dog walking).

 

[Jemayni]

I have done it too, my friend gave me 200 per week (though i would have prob done it for free!), to look after horse, goat, chickens, dogs, cats, ferrets; it was fantastic fun - if your horse is at livery, do you happen to have any useful 18yos who keep horses there - we are always willing!

 

[mrsbloggett]

I'm on a very small yard (only 4 horses!) and the other two owners are away the same week! Their horses live out, mine is currently on box rest, I don't know how long for - waiting for a referal to Newmarket, so she will need extra care.

 

[claire1976]

Dont use Petpals!!! My experience was not great and well overpriced for what I got.
I find it's easier and cheaper to find someone word of mouth who's happy to do it for some pocket money. I paid my friend £120 for 2 weeks for dog sitting and feeding small animals. Plus I stocked up house with food and drink and bought a couple of thank you gifts.

 

[happyhack]

i've done it and i got paid £10 a night to stay in the house and £20 to do the horses and dog

 

[spaniel]

A friend has just been offered one nights work over Christmas, 10 dogs, pigs and chickens for 24 hours. She is charging £150 which is, apparently, good value as its the holiday season.

 

[GoJo]

i use a housesitting company and have done for the past few years- mixed bag really depending on who they get for you. We have 2 GSD's, 3 cats and 1 horse to sit for . We always "vet " the couple first and make sure they bond with the animals ok before deciding. For peace of mind i use them but they are very expensive.

 

[1928sky]

Be careful of people pretending they know about horses. There are a lot of people out there who think "how hard can looking after a horse be?" Went away for the weekend and got a mature lady who we were friends with who said they had experience of horses. Get a phone call while away they cannot catch the horse- turns out they tried in the dark, used an alternative entrance to the one we use and as horse was desperate to come in was problems galloping wildly around the gate so frightened this particular person. Lady says she will just leave it out for the night bearing in mind middle of winter and horse has full clip! Nice person who lives in the house has no trouble getting horse in unsuprisingly as she is fine to catch. Next day we return to find underrug in middle of field as she didn't realise it had to be done up! all empty haynets in stable because she hadn't taken old ones down and a myriad of other things. Needless to say did not ask again and our 16 year old neighbour did a much better job!

 

[bexj]

I've used a pet sitter, but one that comes to your house as many times a day as you want, rather than staying over. She charged £4.50 per visit - that was to feed and clean 3 cats and stay with them for half an hour, play with them, cuddles etc etc. She would draw the curtains, water the plants, put the rubbish out, basically anything you wanted to make your house look lived in. She was fully insured, and had copies of police checks and references. She wrote a diary each day of what she did, where the cats were, what they were doing etc.

I couldn't fault the service, and bearing in mind our local cattery charges in the region of £10 per night, it was a bargain and much less stressfull for both us and the kittys

 

[madabout2]

Only done it once fort he dogs. £35 per day or part day. Not cheap - certainly she wouldn't do horses!

When we go away we send the horse away for schooling.