How much would you pay for a cat-sitter?
 

Someone has asked me to pet sit for them from the 2-25. Not saty the night, just feed the cat, play, make sure s/he doesn't get lonely or go hungry. How much should I charge? What would you pay?

2-25? So 23 days? $5 a day... $115? Dunno, how far will you have to drive? Is it a cool cat?

I need more info before I can formulate a proper smartass remark.

Mine charges $10 to 15 per day, for a visit, play, scooping the litter, feeding, water, etc.
For extended time frames, she'll drop it to $8 - 12/day.
If it's twice per day, it goes up $5 -10 depending on drive time.

How far away is this? If its a next door neighbor or if its on the other side of town should be considered.

I am not a cat person, but the way she (my wife) sold me on the cat was that a cat can self feed, use a liter box, etc., hence no need for a sitter or boarding of any kind. With that if she (my wife) came to me and said we needed to pay a cat sitter, I would...never mind....probably say yes dear, and make sure we had enough money in the checking account.

But, I think the point is that given the low amount of work required, and if you were a friend, I would do it for you with no questions asked and not expect anything even given that I don't like cats. If a friend did this for me (my wife) I would get them a special gift, consistent with how much I loved the cat, or in my case my wife.

I pay my catsitter in baked goods and homemade applesauce, so I couldn't say.

I think we paid $30 per day, but that included a full hour of interaction/play time each day in addition to the feeding and litterbox duties. That was also for two cats. This is also Canada. This is also Toronto.

I have a few different people I ask to do it. There is no commercial arrangement. They are doing me a favour and I usually give them something (be it a case of beer/flowers/voucher for a shop etc.), but I also realise that favour go both ways - if they want *me* to do something for them, then the same 'rules' apply.

We have had younger people from my wife's church 'house-sit' for us. This is usually giving them somewhere away from their parents house, so it is a win-win. In this case we would also give an appropriate gift.

Everyone we ask either lives walking distance to our house OR drives by every day anyway.

ours comes over for HBO and other movies on a large TV screen.

When I pet-sat it was usually for multi-animal families. $10/day was pretty standard, but I had one family that insisted on paying me $40/day. It was very nice of them, but highly unexpected.

I pay the kennel $5/day for my rabbit. I think that they charge $25/day for dogs and $7/day for cats. The dogs are more because they get their own individual bedrooms.

I'd probably pay them $10 for a simple checkup, cleanup of any messes, making sure they have food and water, cleaning out litter box, and 15-30 minutes of play. If it's more than a 10 minute drive to get there one way, I'd pay $15 per checkup.

My two cats both require medication, so I pay a vet tech about $25 per visit if I'm gone more than 2 nights and mom can't do it... mom's free.

I have 3 cats.

It's $24.00 a day, so in the same ball park as you. I don't know if they get an hour of attention, but they are fed and cleaned up afterwards and I'm happy with the service.

And I agree, it's Toronto and everything costs more money here.

I'm a part-time professional pet sitter. We're licensed and bonded. My company charges $20 for a minimum half-hour stay (I get $14 of that), which includes feeding, watering, scooping and play. Meds if needed. We also collect mail/newspapers, water plants, turn lights on/off, open/close blinds, clean up barfs/hairballs, put out/bring in garbage cans, and whatever else is requested (within reason). More than five cats or three dogs costs a bit more. Driving more than 20 miles one way costs a bit more (it's very rural out here). Overnights are $65 (11-hour minimum).

Oh, that's right. I should also note that my sitter also watered the plants (daily watering of outdoor container plants) and fed/watered two birdcages. Again, all for $30 a day.

If a friend asked me to come over and check on his pet for a day, the would work out to roughly a beer. When I say beer, I mean a good beer in a good-beer-bar. If you want to translate that into dollars I'd say about $6-$8. Then add in expenses, if you gotta drive more than 10 miles round trip that figures in too.

My friend watched my cat when I went away last time. She didn't ask for money. I left her a bottle of wine, and she was able to relax in my house without her father being upstairs. I bought her some souvenirs too. I told her I'd pay back the favor if she needed me to watch her puppy.

Hmmm...I've never paid for a cat sitter before, of course when I was a youngin our cats just kind of wandered in and out, stayed in the barn...heck I don't even remember buying cat food. Mice tartare, yum!

I don't know, I suppose I'd take into account my expenses (gas, would I have to buy cat food?) tack on a bit more to make it worth your time and go with that, $5-10 per visit seems reasonable to me. Honestly though if its a friend and its not to much of imposition I'd just offer to do it for free. :)