A good pet sitter handover should answer ordinary questions quickly and make an unexpected situation easier to handle. The aim is not to write a manual for every possibility. It is to leave one current, readable source of truth about your companion, the home, and the people to contact.
The short answer
Leave your pet sitter one current care sheet with: your contact details and travel dates; a local backup; one profile per animal; food, water, toilet, exercise and sleep routines; behaviour, hiding places, triggers and handling preferences; medication copied exactly from the veterinary label; your regular veterinarian and nearest emergency hospital; authorisation and payment arrangements; the location of carriers, leads and supplies; home access and safety instructions; and the update rhythm you expect. Walk through one normal care cycle together before you go. Keep medicines in their original labelled containers and ask the prescribing veterinarian in advance what to do if a dose is missed, refused or vomited. Share only the personal information needed for care, use temporary access where possible, and remove it when the stay ends.
What should a pet sitter know before you leave?
Start with the facts that identify the animal and shape daily care: name, species, age, distinguishing features, microchip details where relevant, current health conditions, and the best way to reach you. If several animals share the home, give each one a separate profile so instructions cannot be confused.
Add your travel dates and the moments when you may be unreachable. Name a nearby backup person who has agreed to help. The ASPCA recommends sharing your itinerary, emergency contacts, veterinary information, and the person authorised to make decisions if you cannot be reached.
How should you describe the daily routine?
Write what actually happens, not what an ideal day is supposed to look like. Include food and approximate amounts, meal times, fresh-water routine, toilet or litter care, walks or exercise, sleep arrangements, and any household rules. Say where supplies, carriers, leads, cleaning materials, and waste bags are kept.
Behavioural context matters too. Note familiar hiding places, known triggers, safe ways to greet or handle your companion, and what usually helps them settle. RSPCA guidance advises leaving routine, feeding, exercise, health, behaviour, equipment, and familiar-item details for the person providing care.
What emergency information belongs on the care sheet?
List your regular veterinary practice, its address and phone number, the nearest out-of-hours or emergency hospital, and a local contact who can attend in person. Confirm with your clinic and sitter how consent and payment would work if urgent care were needed while you were unavailable.
Do not make the sitter interpret a list of symptoms. Leave a simple instruction: for any urgent concern, call the veterinarian or emergency hospital promptly and follow professional advice. Add practical home details such as the carrier location, evacuation route, alarm instructions, and where the water shutoff is only when they are relevant to the stay.
How should you share medication and health instructions?
Keep every medicine in its original labelled container. Copy the current name, strength, dose, route, schedule, storage instructions, and the prescribing clinic exactly; then demonstrate the routine before you leave. Record when each dose is given so two caregivers cannot both assume the other person handled it.
Ask the prescribing veterinarian in advance what the sitter should do if a dose is missed, refused, spat out, or vomited. The answer depends on the medicine. A sitter should not repeat, change, or stop a dose from a generic online instruction.
How can you make the handover easier?
Walk through one normal care cycle together: enter the home, find the animal, prepare food, handle any medicine, secure doors, and send an update. Let the sitter try the tasks while you are still there. This exposes unclear instructions and gives your companion a lower-pressure introduction.
Agree on an update rhythm and what it should contain. A short note after each visit — arrival, food, water, toilet, medicine, and one observation — is usually easier to scan than a stream of messages. Leave the current care sheet both digitally and in one obvious physical location.
What information should stay private?
Share what the sitter needs for the agreed care and emergencies, not your entire personal archive. Use a temporary access code where possible, avoid leaving unrelated identity or financial documents visible, and explain which photos or updates may be shared with other people.
Remove access when the stay ends and update the care sheet before the next handover. A useful document is current, scoped to the job, and understandable without opening private conversations or searching through several apps.
Pet sitter checklist: the seven-part handover
- Contacts and dates
Add your phone number, travel dates, periods when you may be unreachable, and a nearby person who has agreed to act as backup. Confirm which channel is best for routine updates and which is for urgent contact.
- One profile per animal
Include a current photo, name, species, age, identifying features, microchip details where relevant, health conditions, and any specific handling needs. Separate profiles reduce mix-ups in multi-pet homes.
- The real daily routine
List food and approximate portions, meal times, water, toilet or litter care, walks, exercise, sleep, home rules, and where supplies are kept. Describe the ordinary version, not an aspirational schedule.
- Behaviour and comfort
Note hiding places, known triggers, safe greeting and handling, door or escape risks, and what usually helps your companion settle. Explain preferences without presenting them as guarantees.
- Health and medication
Copy active instructions from the current veterinary label and demonstrate the routine. Leave the original labelled container, a dose log, and the prescribing clinic’s number. Never ask the sitter to improvise a missed-dose decision.
- Emergency plan
List the regular clinic, out-of-hours service, nearest emergency hospital, local backup, carrier location, and agreed authorisation or payment process. Tell the sitter to seek veterinary help promptly rather than diagnose from your notes.
- Access, updates and privacy
Give only the home access needed, preferably temporarily. Agree on a short update after each visit and keep the care sheet in one obvious physical place plus one shared digital location. Revoke access afterwards.
A five-minute handover test
Ask the sitter to find the food, carrier, medicine log and emergency number without your help, then explain the next scheduled care task back to you. Correct anything ambiguous and let them practise the routine while you are present. If the handover requires searching several chats or guessing which document is current, consolidate it before you leave.
Sources and further reading
This general guidance was researched against the following veterinary and animal-care sources:
These articles offer general, everyday guidance. They do not replace advice from a qualified veterinary professional.
