Hello!
I am picking up a few dog and horse sitting gigs this summer for some extra cash and wanted to be sure I was charging reasonable rates. I heard overnights for pets was ballpark around $60/night in my area (SE PA). What would someone charge if they were also feeding horses/ doing turnout? Stalls?
Thanks!
Too many variables to answer you directly.
By “overnight” I aasume you mean sitter stays on the property?
How many dogs/cats/housepts?
How many horses?
What is involved in feeding, turnouts, etc.?
I have paid farmsitters - who do NOT need to stay onsite - as much as $15/visit & have them come 2X daily to feed horses.
My 2 horses are out 24/7 with access to stalls & come in by themselves to be fed.
Frostfree hydrant inside the barn has attached hose that easily reaches both stalls and just outside the barn is a 50gal barrel also reachable from inside the barn for refilling.
I do not ask that stalls be picked aside from forking manure piles inside them into a wheelbarrow in the aisle. This is for when I’m only gone 2-3 days.
If I’m gone longer I just ask that piles be tossed into the paddock & I deal with that when I get back.
Housecat gets checked on every couple of days to make sure she has water & dry food.
Barncat gets dry food only & then only if she appears - no leaving food out for varmints.
I consider this a pretty easy job & pay accordingly.
Present farmsitter is paid $10/visit - actually, he did not want to charge me at all, but I feel someone coming twice a day should get something.
Yes this is not a “stop in” type of situation. 3 dogs plus 7 horses- 5 stalled and 2 on field board. Overnights you do stay with the animals in their home so they are not alone. So it would be pet/farm sitting plus stalls, feeding, turn in/out.
Keep asking around in your area because that will affect the fee. Around here to board 3 dogs at a mid-range kennel will run $45 a night, more if the dogs are large breed and more if you want extra turn out or play time. I pay a vet tech from the clinic I use $10 a trip to come check on the horses (pasture kept) and feed the house cats. She lives 2 miles from me.
How long are they asking you to farm sit? It might be easier to come up with a weekly rate like $500 a week, a week being 7 days. At that rate it the billable would be the same as $70 per day to attend to the horses, dogs and stay on site. That breaks down to about $10 a day for each stalled horse and $20 for the dogs, the field boarded horses are “free” since you would be only checking water and for injuries. Does that make since?
You have to make sure the market will bear it, too. It sucks to charge $70/night when you’re getting passed over for $60/night peeps.
SE PA is a $$$ area, but only for people they know. If you have great connections and a great reputation then you can charge a lot. Otherwise, just get your name out there this season.
How long does it take to care for the animals? Are you traveling to and fro?
I have taken care of 3 horses while a friend traveled north staying at the house, prepared the horses to be picked up by transporter and closed up the “farm” . She insisted on paying $300, which is what she had paid local pet sitter.
In MA, I paid $35 per visit…3 mostly pastures horses…horse person traveled 6 miles to get there…that takes gas and time . Local pet sitter would have charged $20 but I preferred experienced horse person for piece of mind.
If I’m staying overnight, my rates start at $50/night. But I’m factoring in the inconvenience factor of having to get back and forth to my own animals every day to feed, etc. Now, I do offer a hefty “friends and family” discount to select clients and I’ve been known to come up with creative payment options (trades for lessons, etc). If it’s just dogs/cats/chickens (and the chickens are friendly), then I’ll usually drop the overnight fee to $35.
I think good, competent, caring, reliable help is hard to find and worth compensating accordingly. I’ve lost clients for various reasons (fired a few also), but some that left have come back. And my references are impeccable. Don’t undervalue yourself, your expertise, and especially your time. Rarely is a farm sitting job a vacation, even though a FO may think so.
I’m in the Triangle area of NC, if that helps. Not a particularly $$$$ area.
Thanks all. Does this sound reasonable to you all? For the combined pet and horse sitting situation (where I am staying overnight with dogs and caring for the horses) I will charge $60 for the pet sitting and the standard $10/hour for the horse care. That way the horse stuff is “a la carte” for as much or as little as they need. Or does this sound very costly for SE PA? I wouldn’t just be dumping feed in a bucked id keep a close eye on the animals for injuries or issues and do night checks as if they were my own.
My fabulous farm sitter takes care of our 5 horses, 1 donkey, 1 dog, 6 barn cats, 1 house cat and chickens for $75 per day. It takes 1.5 hours to feed, turn out, clean stalls, pick fields, clean water buckets/troughs and refill. I try to have an efficient operation so time is not wasted. The other animals probably take 45 minutes combined, and I leave great food, internet, hundreds of books, all movie channels, a hot tub, and excellent HVAC to cool off in the summer.
[QUOTE=bathsheba8542;7654437]
My fabulous farm sitter takes care of our 5 horses, 1 donkey, 1 dog, 6 barn cats, 1 house cat and chickens for $75 per day. It takes 1.5 hours to feed, turn out, clean stalls, pick fields, clean water buckets/troughs and refill. I try to have an efficient operation so time is not wasted. The other animals probably take 45 minutes combined, and I leave great food, internet, hundreds of books, all movie channels, a hot tub, and excellent HVAC to cool off in the summer.[/QUOTE]
This sounds just about like what I was thinking! Thanks
Depends on your horse knowledge. My daughter (was an equine vet tech) gets $100 to $125 a day for a similar situation…$150 in the spring with foals or broodmares ready to foal. So it really depends on your knowledge and the market.
The hourly rate for horses would be difficult for me to accept as an owner-- no incentive for the sitter to get the chores done in a reasonable amt of time, no way to verify the time spent. I’d much prefer to have the daily task list identified (so it’s still an “a la carte” structure) , but fix a flat daily rate. Obviously that flat rate would take into account the normal difficulty/duration of the tasks.
#13 reported as possible spam… This is a Five Year Old thread that was restarted by new poster
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