Feeding with a pet sitter

[troubleminx]

Hi guys! I'm going out of town in a few weeks and I'm anxious about what to do about my kitties' feeding schedule while I'm gone. I could use some advice!

I'm going to be out of town for about 10 days for a vacation. I'm leaving my two cats in the care of a pet sitting service. I have one particular sitter that I've used many times before and she is great with the cats. I assume she is the one that will be taking care of them this time, too. However, since the last time she's helped me out, I've transitioned the boys from all kibble to all raw. I've been feeding them commercial frozen twice a day. (I've also never left them alone for this long before.) Here are my questions:

1. Have you ever asked a paid pet sitter to feed raw? I assume it shouldn't be a problem, and I will leave detailed written instructions on thawing/handling/cleanup, but is there anything special I should anticipate?
2. The sitter will only be coming once a day, but as I said, I've been feeding them twice a day. Is it a terrible idea to have the sitter feed them their entire portion of food once a day for the ten days she's sitting for them? I figured I would try it for a few days myself to make sure they handle it OK first. From what I've read, it seems like feeding once a day causes vomiting in some cats, which is why I'd want to test them out on it first, but I haven't seen anything about this potentially causing problems if it's just short term. For the record, I'm not worried that they won't be able to finish the whole day's portion in one sitting; they're both gluttons and will lick the bowl clean, I'm sure!

If they don't get fed their full daily raw portion in one meal, the only other option I can think of is to have the sitter feed the normal (half-day's) portion when she's there and then leave out dry food for grazing. I'm not sure if this is a good option, though, since neither of them will have eaten kibble for several months by then. One of my boys has also had a UTI before I switched him off dry food, and I'm very anxious about him getting another one, especially when I'm not around to monitor him closely for such a long period of time.

Thoughts?

(PS: I wasn't sure if this was OK to put in the main pet nutrition forum, or if it needed to go in the raw section. Sorry if I messed up!)

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Well, I think I would move this over to the Raw Forum, as I'm sure others have had this same issue.  What I've heard of others doing is actually leaving out some of the food still frozen, so that 12 hours later it thawed and is ready to eat.  I have never tried this myself, as my pet sitter is my neighbor and is actually willing to come over THREE times a day to feed them their raw!

If you can possibly avoid it,  I would NOT have her put out kibble for them.  If you're afraid to have her leave out frozen raw, maybe she could leave out frozen grain free canned food for their second meal.  Do you ever used that as a back-up? 

 

[pushylady]

I've fed raw to cats & dogs while pet sitting them. There shouldn't be any problem for the sitter to have to handle raw food, especially as it's commercially prepared (it's not like you're asking her to grind up raw meat or anything!).
But I would be really hesitant to start with the kibble again. You've made the effort to switch to raw and I'm sure your cats are healthier for it. Especially since your one boy had UTI issues, and you're not there to monitor him.
Is there any way the sitter could come twice a day? Even if they reduce the time spent at each visit - like if they're really busy and two visits cuts into their schedule- that would be better than just once.

 

[katluver4life]

Is having the sitter come once a day your choice? Most sitting services will come as many times a day your willing or can afford to pay for. We had one come twice a day just this past weekend. I too feed raw and had no trouble with the sitter being able to feed it. I had all meals prepackaged and all he had to do was thaw in warm water for them. On other occasions I have also substituted with canned. This was when my son did the sitting and I honestly just didn't trust him to follow instructions lol.

Having the sitter doing 1 meal and before leaving putting out their second meal (raw or canned) frozen would probably work also imo, I would NOT let them go back to dry especially if one of your kitties is prone to UTI's.

 

[txcatmom]

I recently had a petsitter feed my cats raw.  But she came twice per day.  I just left some reminders about food safety in my notes.  (Like washing the dishes after each use, wiping up anywhere the raw meat touched with Clorox Anywhere.)  The only problem we ran into was that my cats hide from visitors...so they missed a couple of meals.  But that could happen with any type of food, I suppose.  (Unless it is kibble that is just left out.)  I agree with mrsgreenjeans that frozen grain free canned would be a better option to leave out rather than kibble.  Maybe you could give that a trial run.

 

[ritz]

My niece came over twice a day to feed Ritz raw (frankenprey). 

I would be worried about vomiting; Ritz is a glutton so she would eat the whole thing--but she is also a pucker.  Definitely test it beforehand.

I would leave out freeze dried treats or freeze dried raw/dehydrated raw (not sure of the difference) for them to nibble on.  Definitely not kibble.

 

[troubleminx]

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies!

Yes, the sitter coming once a day is my choice. The service I use charges $23/visit. (I've checked, and this is standard for my area--I haven't been able to find anyone reputable, licensed and bonded who will do it for less.) They will come more than once a day, and I would love to be able to do that, but it would cost another $23 and I really can't afford a $460 bill right now, unfortunately. It would simplify things so much if I could!

I'm not sure how leaving out frozen raw/canned would work...maybe with a timed feeder? I have seen some where you can set the lid to pop open after a certain amount of time. 

 

[ritz]

There are timed feeders that you place raw/canned food and a mini-ice pack in the slot.  The feeders get mixed reviews; check on Amazon for them.

 

[txcatmom]

I've never tried this, but I've read of people just putting out the frozen canned and assuming the cats won't eat it until it thaws to room temp....no timer needed.  I guess you could test it and see if it works. 

 

[troubleminx]

Without ever trying it, I can tell you with 100% certainty that a frozen block of canned or raw just sitting out by itself would become THE GREATEST TOY EVER CREATED to my 9-month-old kitten, and would end up being batted under the couch/oven/refrigerator to thaw there, creating one of the more disgusting problems I can imagine. No doubt there are many cats that could be trusted with this responsibility; Lucius is not one of them.

I think I'm going to wait until I have a weekend when I'll be home all day for a couple of days and see how they do being fed once a day with me monitoring them. If they can't handle that, the timed feeders seem like an acceptable solution, although definitely not ideal.

 

[furmonster mom]

I honestly think once a day is going to cause the hurks. 

Just like people, cat's stomachs will start producing bile when they get hungry.  If they've been on a regular schedule, their bodies will automatically start producing bile during that feeding timeframe.  If that bile isn't given anything to work on, they will hurk it up.

The other possibility is that a full day's meal will be too much for their stomach to handle, and they will hurk it up.

If you can't afford to have the sitter come in twice a day, then I think the timed feeder is probably the better option.

The sitter can pull 2 meals, thaw 1 for the immediate meal, and leave one frozen in the timer... or something...

Hopefully, you'll work something out.

Since I feed frankenprey style, I usually end up packaging a boatload of single meal packets with my foodsaver ahead of time.  It makes it fairly painless for the sitters.  They just have to do a little bit of clean up after meals. 

I have enlisted friends and neighbors who I know are animal lovers to help when I go on vaycay.  I usually bribe them with reciprocation when they go on trips, and special gifts from my travels.