We're starting to make summer vacation plans and will probably ask some neighbor kids if they'd be willing to check in on our kitty once or twice a day when we're away (make sure she has enough food and fresh water, scoop the litter box, etc. She sleeps in the garage at night and her food, water, litter box, and favorite sleeping places are in the garage)y. Kitty is a pretty low-maintenance cat - she has a cat door to the garage with a 4-way lock (in only, out only, in or out, and locked) so I was thinking that if the pet sitter didn't want to check in twice a day, they could feed her and let her out in the morning and set the cat door to "in only" so she can have some outside time but is indoors at night (we don't want her wandering around at night b/c we wouldn't want her to be a target for bigger critters). What do you think is an appropriate amount per day to pay a kid (age around 4th-7th grade) to check in on a kitty once or twice a day? Thanks
My son dog sits every summer. I think 25 dollars is fair. Considering the child has go to your house everyday to feed your kitty. If your leaving for 5 to 7 days 25 is fine.
I used to get $30-40 a week for petsitting for neighbors (10 plus years ago). We currently pay our neighbor who is 12 about $15 a day for our crew of 1 dog, 3 cats and a couple of tanks of fish. Last time we also gave the parents a gift card for a restaurant since they were helping out and we did have a pipe burst and flood the downstairs and they took care of everything. I know the son is taking care of everyone, but the parents are also helping and making sure everything gets done. I also do dog walking and charge $17 for a 30 minute visit, which is a pretty normal price depending on location.
So I think for a 4th to 7th grader I would say $5-10 a day for one cat, since they live close. You can talk to their parents or them beforehand and see what they expect.
Our neighbor is in 7th grade and we pay her $5 per visit. For our dog we usually have her come 3 times per day.
Good luck,
K.
If they live very close (walkable to your house) I think $20 per person is good. I cat sit for our across the street neighbors, and although I will not take cash from them, they have bought grocery gift cards for me in the past, which are nice. We go and feed & scoop & play twice per day. It would be REALLY nice if you got them a little gift from your destination as well! My neighbors always bring my son something from Disney when they go & we cat sit.
It's really nice of you to think of kids for this, I always swap with a friend. Whenever her family goes out of town we feed and water their animals and then they do ours. I get the raw deal though...LOL, she has 18 goats from ages newborn to old adults, 2 huge dogs, an Irish Wolfhound and a Great Pyrenees, 3 cats and one litter box that never gets used, they go outside. Oh yeah, 4 fish aquariums, and a few rodents in cages. It gives me great peace of mind to know our pets are being well taken care of when we go somewhere too..
We paid a friend's son $50 to watch our dog for nine days. They just had to come buy every other day and refill the dog dish(we have a doggie door). We also asked them to stay and play with her a little bit.
We actually hired a pet sitting service for the occasional times that we are out of town and need someone to check in on our three cats. She asks for $18 a day which we feel is pretty fair but also don't go out of town alot.
