Pet sitting - what's the going rate?

[Heathofhares]

I am asking my neighbour's teenager to take care of our two guinea pigs while we have a few days away. They will really only be popping in to feed them, top up the water and give them a few cuddles.

Can anyone give me an idea of what kind of daily rate would be reasonable? This is the first time we've been away since the piggies came to us.

We pay £13 a visit to our professional pet sitter (she's a vet nurse by background), all she has to do is feed the cat and 2 x guinea pigs so not onerous, probably takes no more than half an hour although obviously she has other costs to take into account, travel, insurance etc.

As this is a neighbouring teen maybe offer £7.50 or £10 a visit?

I'd go for a fiver a day.

My dog homeboards when we go away, it's £25 a day for 24 hour care and he's on medication, also an ex vet nurse and I'm in London.

£10 a visit for a teenager to look after a couple of guinea pigs seems like a lot!

If it's more than 48 hours then I'd have to add a quick clean in there , guinea-pigs are filthy blighters ...I'm not being mean, I'm a long term poster of this topic and I've kept many of the little ratbags so I know just how much waste they expel

If you leave them with a clean bed then your Stand-In-Pig-Slaves would need to do a morning/evening fresh feed , daily water change , pellet bowl change , cuddles and check .
Top up hay and clean the sleeping area after a couple of days .

Are the piggies inside the house or in the garden?

They'd need to be aware of dirty bedding and the risk of flystrike (hopefully its not the right time of year yet but the flies come in quick)

And double check they're secure .
If they're indoors maybe leave a radio on for them for background noise ?

When my guineas went to boarding it was £8/pig/day + pellets .

If my DD looked after our guinea-pigs (if I was away) she got a nice present

A pet hotel we left our tortoise and birds at charges £6 per pet (they also look after guinea pigs and rabbits etc)

If there are two pets in the same cage I think they charge £7 for both

Our local pet boarding place charges £10 a day but I know the neighbours are keen to do it as they don’t have pets of their own( and they’ve not had many opportunities to earn cash due to covid) It saves me ( and the piggies) the stress of travelling to the boarding place. It’s only a couple of days and we’ll have a couple of ‘practice’ sessions before we go. I’m hoping they’ll be confident to move the piggies between their main residence (in the shed now for summer) and their run in the garden. But the minimum would be to feed and water them in the shed... so I’m thinking maybe £8 a day? ( no travel time as we share an entry gate...)

I’d pay £10 per day.

Deffo a practice run to catch them especially trying to get them out of the run (I used to send DD in , literally into the run) ..
When DH and I had to , we used a broomhandle to corall them forward into a box , not pushing them just edging forward .

In the nice sumer evenings when it doesn't get dark till gone 10pm, my little Himalayan liked prancing about . But we wanted them safely locked away because Mr Fox also likes being about .

They will have the joy of guinea-pig cuddles once they catch them, just warn them to have a towel handy to wrap them . In case they have mucky little feet , pee them or need to feel secure .
There's an art to guinea-pig capture

We have a ‘no contact’ transfer method. Give guinea pigs their favourite tunnel... wait for them to run in, carry tunnel to the run and wait for them to run out. It saves a lot of stress all round. They are pretty tame and happy with cuddles - they just hate the picking up part don’t they.

I also recommend an old ikea water proof mattresss protectors ( the ones they sell for kids beds) we have cut one down into lap mats. waterproof, claw proof for the DCs legs and snuggly for the GPs.

I’ve had lots of GPs over the years but I’ve always had different holiday arrangements!

Coralling them into a box or tunnel works but they can be tricky little blighters .
I'm sure the only excercise ours got was scarpering when they were pretending they didn't want caught . But for prey animals it is the time they'd feel vunerable .
Seeing my (to them) huge hands reaching in to enclose them , even though they knew the routine and knew there was nothing to fear .

If DD and I were away (visiting my parents) DH was on duty . He did well , though he didn't really want to cuddle them. (He wasn't a fan , seems to think the cats are far superior )
He'd feed , clean check them, make sure they were pootling about , no injuries etc.
And he'd always come back with "veg for the pigs" from the shop.