Travelling? What kind of list should you leave your pet sitter?

Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,

We’re leaving the country soon and it’s time to leave another list of things to do for our lovely friend who has agreed to babysit our little ones. This time around I wanted to share my list of things to do with you folks to see if you think it’s adequate or if you think more information should be added. Hopefully, my list will also help out some other pet parents who are afraid to leave their little ones with a sitter.

Off the top, I would assume that the more information the better, make sure you bold important things so your sitter can skim important information if they need! So here it goes…

Beau

• Beau gets fed a can of Science Diet C/D a day
  • I recommend feeding him soon after you wake up. In essence, do some chores beforehand (like taking a shower or brushing your teeth.) We noticed that if you feed him right after you wake up, he will start to wake you up so he can eat. If you do some chores before you actually feed him he’ll wait for you to wake up. Weird, eh?
  • Beau doesn’t like finishing the whole can at once. I recommend putting 1/2 a can at a time in the Tupperware we’ve provided you. If he walks away from his food for a few minutes, lid the food and put it back in the fridge within 30-minutes of it being out.
• Please make sure to add extra water to his wet food. (The consistency should be a bit soupy, but not swimming in the water… if that makes sense! You can use cold or warm water, he doesn’t mind, but he does eat more when it’s warm.)
• Make sure to feed Beau a good amount before you leave the house and shortly after you come home. This is very important because he will eat the bedsheets or some of your stuff if he thinks he’s going to starve.
  • A good idea would be to close the bedroom door when you’re gone. I know he likes spending time in there, but I don’t want any of your stuff destroyed while we’re gone. He recently tried to eat tissue papers again, and I don’t want to risk it!
  • Speaking of tissue papers, please make sure to throw them out! They have to be in a lidded garbage can because he has been known to topple over garbage cans. I don’t know how, but I’m pretty sure he can smell tissue papers a mile away…
• As for time of feeding, don’t stress too much about it. Beau has been doing a good job at telling us when he’s hungry by putting his paw on us while we’re working (if he gets hungry earlier than we usually feed him). It would be nice if you found a routine-time for him, but we know you are very busy and your schedule changes, so as long as you focus on feeding him soon after you wake up before you leave the house and when you get back, that’s all we can really ask for.
• If Beau eats less than a can of Science Diet C/D feel free to put a bit of Science Diet C/D kibble in one of his toys at night. This should also make sure that he won’t try to wake you up at night and make sure he won’t try to scavenge. Beau will wake you up if he gets hungry in the middle of the night, and trust me… it’s very annoying! (But we love him!)
• Please clean Beau’s litter boxes often and remember to fill them with extra litter (should be about half an inch high).
  • If you don’t refill the litter he will hold in his poops. He’s currently pooping once a day or every other day, dependant on his food intake or exercise. Please keep me informed if he struggles to use the litter box, and my parents have agreed to help you take him to the vet if anything happens.
• Beau needs one pill of Cosequin every other day. He takes this in his food. The capsules are easy to open and don’t need to be mixed in for him to eat them. Just sprinkle it all over his food and let him chow down! They are located on the kitchen counter. (This is an anti-inflammatory to support his bladder health/swelling). We record what days he took his pill on the whiteboard located by the front door if you want to use it.
• If ever anything arises please feel free to contact me at any point or contact my parents.
• If you want to play with Beau his favourite toy is Da Bird! It is located at the very top of my computer desk/hutch.

Blub

• Blub eats about 6-pellets of food a day. Please make sure not to overfeed him as it may cause him bloat (where he’ll float to the top upside down, even though he’s still alive).
• You can choose to fast him one day a week (I usually fast him on Saturdays) to help support urinary health, although feeding him every day won’t cause any harm to him.
• Don’t worry about changing the water in his tank. I cleaned it right before you left and will clean it as soon as we get back since the water has to be a certain temperature I don’t want to stress you out with worry.

Other than that, have fun! I know Beau will want to give you lots of cuddles while we’re gone! Feel free to send us all of the pictures you want, we really enjoyed that last time. Never hesitate to text me or call my parents if something goes wrong, but I’m sure nothing will go wrong! Thank you again for helping us out <3

 

So pet parents, do you think I did a good job letting our pet sitter know what to do? Do you think it’s too much, or do you think it’s informative enough? Should I add a bullet point form of all of this information to allow for quick skimming or is the bolding good enough? Let me know! I’ll also be running this by our lovely pet sitter this week to see what she thinks!