Pig-sitters for vacations?
Hi all, I am in need of ideas. What is a good way to find a trustworthy person to watch our pigs while we are on vacation? We usually go away for just 5-7 days, which is not terribly long, but I am already nervous about leaving them for that long. I could try to find someone on an app like Care.com, I guess, but I don't know if I like the idea of giving a person I don't know access to our house. Our friends are not big animal people; I can't picture them coming over to clean out the pen and give the pigs attention, etc.
What do you all do when you need to get away for a few days?
What do you all do when you need to get away for a few days?
- Waddles
- Party Poop-er
It's always a worry finding a pigsitter that you feel comfortable leaving them with, even if only a few days.
In addition to bpatters' suggestions,
The shelter you adopted them from might be willing to pigsit for a fee or donation or might have members willing to pigsit. The advantage is that being pig owners, they are familiar with pigs. One caveat is that not all pig owners treat their pigs with the same level of care. If they also happen to be GL members, that makes me feel much better.
I've used a franchise called Snagglefoot, they come to your house and will also take in your papers, mail. Like you, I wasn't sure about having a stranger in my house but the lady who owned the franchise (it was family owned) came highly recommended by fellow pig owner who had used them to look after her pigs. The first time, all was fine. The second time, I don't think she came in every day as agreed from various signs, like the newpapers were still on the driveway. I never used her again.
My vet also offered pigsitting - the pigs would be kept in a separate room from the bigger animals like dogs and cats. The advantage is that should they happen to get sick, the vet is right there. The downside is that the pigs would be alone in the building once they closed for the day and until the next morning.
In addition to bpatters' suggestions,
The shelter you adopted them from might be willing to pigsit for a fee or donation or might have members willing to pigsit. The advantage is that being pig owners, they are familiar with pigs. One caveat is that not all pig owners treat their pigs with the same level of care. If they also happen to be GL members, that makes me feel much better.
I've used a franchise called Snagglefoot, they come to your house and will also take in your papers, mail. Like you, I wasn't sure about having a stranger in my house but the lady who owned the franchise (it was family owned) came highly recommended by fellow pig owner who had used them to look after her pigs. The first time, all was fine. The second time, I don't think she came in every day as agreed from various signs, like the newpapers were still on the driveway. I never used her again.
My vet also offered pigsitting - the pigs would be kept in a separate room from the bigger animals like dogs and cats. The advantage is that should they happen to get sick, the vet is right there. The downside is that the pigs would be alone in the building once they closed for the day and until the next morning.
I like the idea of swapping out-sitting with a fellow pig owner, but do not know anyone else who has guinea pigs at this time. Maybe we will run into someone sometime in the future.
I will look into seeing if someone from the vet's office or animal shelter would be available.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I will look into seeing if someone from the vet's office or animal shelter would be available.
Thanks for the suggestion!
My brother normally pig-sits but when I went on vacation in April, he had a medical emergency with his hands and couldn't take care of my two girls. I ended up taking them to a local rabbit and small animal rescue for boarding. The boarding fees help the rescue with expenses and the volunteers there were knowledgeable about small animals. When I picked up the girls, the volunteer told me "your girls are very vocal" and "they are always chatting to the other resident pigs". At that point, I had barely heard them make much noise so was pleasantly surprised.
- AviN4
- Supporter in '21
I've gone on a few 4-5 day trips where I've done the following:
* Prepared bags of veggies in the fridge.
* Paid a dog walking company to send someone over to feed them for $20 per day, providing written instructions on feeding.
* Left my key in a lockbox outside my apartment and gave the dog walkers the combination.
* Used an IP camera to watch the piggies and make sure they're fed. To reduce risk of failure, I connect the IP camera via Ethernet cable, not WiFi.
* Gave a friend who lives nearby my key as a backup.
* Was prepared to hop on a plane and return if something went terribly wrong.
This has worked well enough, though I have had hiccups and some stress about it.
I'd be less comfortable the longer the trip though. For one thing, 5 days is pushing the limits for a cleaning, and I don't want someone careless to pick up the piggies for a cage cleaning.
* Prepared bags of veggies in the fridge.
* Paid a dog walking company to send someone over to feed them for $20 per day, providing written instructions on feeding.
* Left my key in a lockbox outside my apartment and gave the dog walkers the combination.
* Used an IP camera to watch the piggies and make sure they're fed. To reduce risk of failure, I connect the IP camera via Ethernet cable, not WiFi.
* Gave a friend who lives nearby my key as a backup.
* Was prepared to hop on a plane and return if something went terribly wrong.
This has worked well enough, though I have had hiccups and some stress about it.
I'd be less comfortable the longer the trip though. For one thing, 5 days is pushing the limits for a cleaning, and I don't want someone careless to pick up the piggies for a cage cleaning.
My dream is to open a boarding house for exotics. I'd take in guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, mice and all manner of rodents. I have experience with snakes and reptiles too, but I don't initially plan on providing boarding for them as they would require a separate area, preferably a totally separate building from the rodents. There is nowhere in town to board the guinea pigs when I travel and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would use the service. The vet doesn't offer boarding except for dogs and cats and the only tech that can pig sit is always full up.
I spoke with the vet and she said that we could discuss a contract with the clinic to provide emergency medical treatment for the tenants provided that the owners signed an agreement with a waiver. It is within my reach, except for the financial aspect. I'd have to rent a suitable commercial building and keep it manned whenever there are animals present. Maybe someday I can make it happen.
I spoke with the vet and she said that we could discuss a contract with the clinic to provide emergency medical treatment for the tenants provided that the owners signed an agreement with a waiver. It is within my reach, except for the financial aspect. I'd have to rent a suitable commercial building and keep it manned whenever there are animals present. Maybe someday I can make it happen.
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- And got the T-shirt
Sounds like a great idea. I'd talk to the folks at Texas Guinea Pig Rustlers if I were you -- they do something like that, and have a LOT of animals. See https://www.theguineapigrescue.com/ for more info.
I could use any ideas I can get. Right now it's a ways off for me to get it off the ground, but I really want to do it some day. It would be veteran owned and family operated. The name of the place would be Scruffy's Rodent Motel and Scruffy would be the face of the business. Not that I don't love all of my boys equally, but he has that little bit of extra space in my heart because of what we went through with his illness and recovery.
- Sef
- I dissent.
I used to "pig sit" many years ago, and also did guinea pig grooming on occasion. There wasn't too much demand for it around here, but I looked at it as a little extra cash now and then to help subsidize our own boys' pellet and hay habit. I think I charged $5 per pig per day to board, but don't remember what I charged to trim nails, etc. There was a lady who owned and ran a small pet grooming salon that also carried pet food, including Oxbow products, and she let me use an area of her shop to groom a few of her clients' guinea pigs. I also made house calls on a few occasions.
I will say...even though there wasn't exactly a steady stream of boarding/grooming jobs, it was a lot of work and I didn't particularly like dealing with some of the guinea pig owners. One individual brought a guinea pig to me for holiday boarding that had a really bad case of mites. Another individual who paid me to do nail trims on a regular basis seemed to think that I needed to be at her beck-and-call any time she had a question about guinea pig care, and got nasty with me if I didn't immediately return her call. Several times I was 'stood up' by clients who didn't bother to meet me at the salon or phone to let me know that they were cancelling the appointment.
I found it especially difficult to bite my tongue whenever a guinea pig owner seemed unconcerned about poor diet, inadequate housing or health issues that I thought needed veterinary attention. In the end, I gave it up. It just really wasn't worth the aggravation for me.
That said, I do hope you're able to make it work if it's something you really want to do.
I will say...even though there wasn't exactly a steady stream of boarding/grooming jobs, it was a lot of work and I didn't particularly like dealing with some of the guinea pig owners. One individual brought a guinea pig to me for holiday boarding that had a really bad case of mites. Another individual who paid me to do nail trims on a regular basis seemed to think that I needed to be at her beck-and-call any time she had a question about guinea pig care, and got nasty with me if I didn't immediately return her call. Several times I was 'stood up' by clients who didn't bother to meet me at the salon or phone to let me know that they were cancelling the appointment.
I found it especially difficult to bite my tongue whenever a guinea pig owner seemed unconcerned about poor diet, inadequate housing or health issues that I thought needed veterinary attention. In the end, I gave it up. It just really wasn't worth the aggravation for me.
That said, I do hope you're able to make it work if it's something you really want to do.
Oh I have no illusions about it being easy. The 4 pigs I have keep me busy and they are healthy. When I had just Mr Bubbles and Scruffy and Scruffy got sick, it was very hard to manage. Multiply that by the number of pigs along with other types of exotics I would have as tenants and throw in the bad owner and other human factors and I know I will have my hands full.