How much to pay a 14 year old for feeding my cat

[catluver]

I'm going on holiday for 9 nights from Xmas Day and my friend's son is going to visit our house twice/day to feed the cat, let it out during the day and back in at night. He'll leave dry food down and put fresh water down. The cat is likely to go to the toilet outside but he might need to clean the litter tray once, and also check for accidents on the kitchen floor and clean that (but hopefully that won't happen).

How much should I pay him? He'll walk to our house (10 minutes) and spend no more than 5-10 minutes feeding/cleaning - twice each day.

Thank you for your suggestions :)

I personally think 9 nights is too long to leave any animal in the care of a young teen or any neighbour really. What if the cat became ill, was in accident or didn't come in at night - or doesn't want to go out? With all due respect, this young lad isn't going to care about the cat in the same way a loving owner would. I'd put my cat in a reputable cattery for that length of time.

£20 seems a lot. I pay a friends daughter (young 20s still living at home) £20 a day to move in and care for all our animals including a dog and cat. She does like the chance to live on her own for the time though.

So I’d say £10/day for a teen popping in. The professionals will be paying for insurance and tax on their income. Whereas the teen will just be pocketing it all

He'll walk to our house (10 minutes) and spend no more than 5-10 minutes feeding/cleaning - twice each day.

I think you are underestimating the time he will need to do the tasks. What if the cat doesn't appear in the evenings in the 10 minute time frame?

Also, I would consider asking him to spend a bit of time at each visit interacting with the cat, a very short feed and let in/out visit isn't really fair for your pet.

£5 for 15 minutes work at the house next door is fine if your DD is happy with it. However, it's a completely different scenario to the one in the original post.

This teen will be

Walking 10 minutes to the OP's house.
Visiting twice a day
Will have the responsibility of locking up
Spend at least 10 minutes cleaning, feeding and letting the cat in / out (this will probably be much longer)
Will be doing this on Christmas day, Boxing day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

£20 a day is the minimum the OP should be offering.

I don’t blame them

£20 per day, plus an extra tip of £50 when you return as its Xmas and new year. Make sure you agree the terms with him and his parents are happy with it too before you go.

I'd say £100 for the whole holiday! I think £20 a day is a bit extreme.

Agree £20/day is far below the going rate here for a professional and seems fair for a teenager. I wouldn't go below that.

So the person is using your gas and electricity and getting free bed and board….completely different scenario…not comparable to this situation at all

No teen I know would do that for a tenner a day….especially over Christmas and new year period…..absolute piss take by offering that

I think £20 a day is quite a lot 🤔
My 14 yo would be happy to do it for a tenner a day.
I hire a "professional" when I go away and even he only charges £8 per visit!
I agree with a round £100 for the whole thing

What has his age got to do with it?
Except for the fact that you are putting quite a bit of responsibility on a child’s shoulders at his holiday time.

Pay him what you would pay an adult and don’t be a Scrooge.

Merry Christmas!

£20 a day sounds fair for the amount of time and responsibility, particularly considering the number of Bank Holidays involved.

@catluver if you think a professional would do it for the same why not just book them and get peace of mind re: insurance, professional knowledge etc

I would give him £100 minimum as he might need the incentive to keep it up for 9 nights.

It’s over Christmas, the weather is shocking and his plans have to work around being back to sort the cat.

Jesus Christ.

I pop to my friends house twice a day when she goes away to feed cat and tortoise.

She sometimes leaves chocolate/a nice tin of biscuits.

I can't help with going rates, but if he is opening cans of cat food- ensure they are ring pull or you have a decent, electric can opener. Nothing worse than trying to use a shitty, partially rusted pair of old school can openers! 😡

My teen fed neighbours’ cats until a couple of years ago. It was once a day and they were home within 5 mins. Got £10 for weekend and £20 for week.

Depends if these are family friends doing a favour for pocket money or someone you don’t know, I think.

I've just looked up Cat in a Flat prices for nine days over Christmas for two visits a day - multiple sitters, the majority living within ten minutes of my house.

£350.

Yet there are cheapskates here thinking that £90 (with instant access to your friend in the event of illness/injury) is more than enough.

£20 a day seems fair. I pay this for 2 cats for only one visit a day, and that’s not over the Christmas period.

Wow my cat sitter (who is also a veterinary nurse) charges £8 a visit. Feel like I’m underpaying!

£30 for the fact my cat coughs up furballs and I can’t imagine a 14 year old would be chill about that 😆

We pay £20 per day for 2 visits, includes watering in summer. Cat sitter is professional with staff. In Midlands.
I'd pay less to a teen with very short walk, but think the 10 mins walk each way needs to be considered. Are you using this teenager as a favour to him to earn some money, or for yourself to save money on a cat sitter, or maybe you don't know of a reliable cat sitter?
Note... we also find the door camera very useful even with a professional as occasionally they've a accidentally missed a visit etc.

My local cat sitter who is a professional charges £8 a visit so I pay the local teen £5 a visit and that's filling the bowls and changing the litter. She lives next door. I thought it was decent for 15 mins max of her time!

Seems reasonable to me. People are so greedy!

A lot of posters are saying their professionals charge less, but they don't seem to be taking the dates OP is away into consideration.

There's no way a professional would be charging less than £20 a day, for visits that included Christmas day, Boxing day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.