Thinking of starting a cat sitting service and would love your opinions please!

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

I'm currently employed in a part time temp role which is due to come to an end in six weeks, so I've been looking into what to do next. I've always loved cats and have my own who hates going in the car to the cattery, so I'm thinking of launching a cat sitting service which would be an alternative to a cattery when people go on holiday or when they're working away etc. My intention is I'd visit the cats in their own homes once or twice a day to feed them, clean the litter tray, brush them and give them a fuss. I'd also open/close curtains, move the post and water indoor plants if the owner also wanted those things doing. Every few days I'd email/text the owner with an update for reassurance.

Do/would you use a cat sitter and if so, whereabouts in the UK do you live and how much would you expect to pay? I'm going to look into insurance and plan to get a DBS check done but what else would you look for in a cat sitter (apart from someone who adores cats!)?

I've cross-posted on Start Ups but also wanted to post here for all the cat-owning expertise. Thank you!

I see that catinaflat is fairly easy to sign up with but it looks as if you can set your own rates etc.

Maybe the thing to do, at least for the start, OP, is to go with such a service until you've at least found your feet and then decide at a later date whether you want to branch out on your own?

I had the meeting yesterday with the lady who'll be coming in to feed/clean my two while I'm away - they charge £8 a visit and were extremely professional

If this helps with your planning, they had forms to complete with details about the cat(s), feeding schedule, house, other keyholders, emergency contacts, etc, and offered to move post, close curtains if wanted, do small amounts of plant watering and so on. They took the front door key (with the rest to be left in the house) and will even email me twice a week to let me know how they are

One small tip: why not ask local vets if they have a folder with details of local "cat businesses" as mine does? Apparently the sitters get a lot of enquiries that way, though there are also sites you can register with which enable the cat owners to contact you through them (www.tailster.com and www.animalaunts.co,uk are just two)

Sorry, link fail

tailster.com/cats?s=catppc&gclid=CjwKEAjw4dm6BRCQhtzl6Z6N4i0SJADFPu1n2y8ImzlIFuNqug0BUVvzaRBIQGdZCmtm8qf0L7dF8RoCrpvw_wcB

I suspect that being at least willing to look after other pets might be a good second string to your bow. I appreciate that you can't be an expert on everything, but for many other pets (eg rabbits, gerbils, hamsters etc) it would likely be mainly a question of feeding, watering, changing bedding etc? I'm sure that there are a good few households which are multi-animal.

We've never used a professional cat sitter (lucky enough to have cat-owning neighbours so we feed one another's moggies) but several friends use them every time they are away. Our local one also offers a key-holding service as a second string - she holds onto your so are key (secured and anonymised) for a small annual fee and charges £10 to come out to you if you're locked out.

Thanks again, everyone. I've looked at Cat in a Flat before but the thing that put me off registering with them is that they take 19% off your earnings as a fee. Nearly a fifth of your earnings, and that's before you take off your own expenses such as petrol and tax! Hence considering going it alone. My only concern really is the fact that there would most likely be hardly any work from Oct-April, at least outside the school hols, so I'm unsure how I'd bring money in then.

Thanks for the info Puzzled. I'm definitely planning on doing a questionnaire to get their vet details, emergency local contact etc. I'll check out those sites too and see how I'd go about registering.

I'm feeling really positive about this now, thanks all for such an enthusiastic response.

Could you also do dog walking? That must be quite a regular income stream?
To answer your questions from a previous post I'd like to know that a cat feeder has adequate insurance but I don't now what that would mean in practice! Dbs check would be a nice to have / nice to know someone had one but not a deal breaker for me (I doubt i would remeber to check but would like to see it on a flyer). Did you know you can get a dbs check quite easily in scotland? Much easier than England. Pet first aid yes would be good. Most importantly would be a sense that they would love my cats and be reliable.

My old cat sitter used to offer to text me photos every few days - I loved that!

Also an introductory visit and a questionnaire is a must - I need to have confidence in a cat sitter!

Being a non smoker helps too - I can't stand the smell on my cats and in my house.

I run my own dog walking business & also do pet visits. I charge £5/visit £7.50 weekends (but might put my rates up after reading this thread!) I have mostly cat customers for the visits but also some rabbits and a couple of tortoises. A lot of them are dog walking customers who also have cats.

Just as a warning there's not tonnes of work out there - I've been going for nearly two years, have 4 staff and a lot of customers but the pet visits only represents less than 10% of my business. There's not massive demand as lots of people use family neighbour's or friends rather than paying someone. My prices at £10/day have put off people (even though it's market rate for round here!). So don't expect to be able to live off the income

Even after a targeted marketing campaign it's not as busy as I'd hoped it would be at this point.

Oh and insurance is about £120/yr!

Our cat sitter is fab and charges £11 a day for one visit. He also feeds our hamster.

He will open/close curtains, takes the mail in and sorts into piles, takes the bin out. He'll also water the garden though I put all then containers on the patio.

arenyou able to administer injections and tablets? Might be good to offer that service for diabetic cats etc.

Good luck.