How much do you charge to pet-sit?

[Abbie.S]

Any other frequent housesitters out there? What do you charge when you are looking after someone’s pets?

I’ve been getting more requests to pet/house sit, which I’m more than happy to do most of the time, but I’m realizing after my last gig that I should have asked for a LOT more compensation given the type of dog(s) and their very high maintenance care routine (which was not made very clear until after owners were already on a plane to somewhere tropical…guess I’ll do my homework next time).

Do you price based on number, breed (or type of animal…cats, bunnies and fish are a lot less work! ) and daily care needs? Do you have a set rate and go up from there? Ideas, go!

[Frivian]

My old pet sitter charged $25/visit, which remained the same for up to 5 pets. This included about a half hour/forty minute visit and any medications/care/clean up the animals need.

My pet sitter in my new area charges $20/visit, with a surcharge on the holidays. I’m not sure how many animals this includes though. But again, it’s for about a half hour visit.

[paulaedwina]

$10 per animal per day-none for a few poultry, and less for cats. I usually am house sitting horses and a dog though.

Paula

[Laurierace]

I don’t offer overnight services and haven’t been hired by anyone with horses yet but my norm is $15 per visit. I did have one menagerie that I bumped it up to $30 per visit due to the volume of animals and crazy diets they all had. I encourage people to board their dog at my house by keeping that price lower than the average number of visits because that is easier and cheaper for me.

[EcstaticLady]

I worked for a pet sitting business in Tucson (2007-2008) and they charged outrageous fees, but people paid it - $75 for an overnight, more if it was a holiday and $50/day, which included feeding and walking for dogs 2x/day. (I got $9/visit). If there were more than 2 animals there was a surcharge too but I don’t remember what it was. Fee didn’t change because they were gerbils or fish.

It was nothing for me to put over 400 miles on my car (a day!) doing 4-6 visits/day depending on how many clients I was dealing with.

When I had my own pet sitting business I never charged enough and spent too much time when I went! The comfort of the animal is way more important to me than the money so I charged $10/visit - feeding, walking, playing and usually cleaning up the yard! For horses and/or donkeys I think I charged $50/day (2x/day). That included feed/water and cleaning pens. When I worked for myself I also limited it to a 20 mile radius.

I only have one “client” here - I babysit her horses and she lets me park my trailer at her place for free.

[GypsyQ]

I have not done any housesitting in a few years, but I was charging $40/night. This included staying over, any watering of houseplants, and any number of animals and barn chores. I did as few as two dogs, to the vet who had 26 cats, 8 dogs, and 7 horse.