Hello. So I usually charge $30 per dog/cat per night. I received a request to pet sit for one dog, two cats, a chicken, four goats and two horses for three nights, four days! How would you charge for this? The family is going out of state and their normal sitter cancelled last minute. I am thinking of just charging for the dog and cats my normal rate. Thanks!
Hi Georgina: You'd be selling yourself way short as far as the horse care goes. Horse care usually involves mucking out stalls, watering/feeding, and grooming. I assume pen cleaning for goats as well as their feeding too. Will you need to get hay and straw bales from the loft? What type of watering systems does the farm have? From my experience, chickens are relatively easy to care for and there is only one. Your normal rate for the dog and cats would come to $90 per night, which to me (in WI) seems high. So you have to look at the work involved (feeding twice a day at minimum), getting bales down from the loft or storage area, cleaning stalls, etc. and decide if it's worth it to you. Also, do you have your own insurance? I do and farm work is considered an extra compared to dog/cat care, so I don't have farm animal coverage on my personal insurance....I'm not sure what the coverage is on Rover's insurance.
Thanks for your comment! There won't be grooming or cleaning out stalls required for this stay, just feeding for the horses and goats twice per day along with pulling hay from the barn. I don't have my own insurance.
Does $90 seem too high per night for this stay? I would have charged less for the cats but I figured I'd use the normal rate to make up for the care of the farm animals.
No, $90 seems very fair. When you do a stay that big, you start charging by the hour somewhat. I will probably take about 2 hours each time you go out.