I think it’s sort of fun stepping into people’s lives and doing weird chores. We street parkour car. In our city the car needs to be moved a couple of times a week for street cleaning. Garages are super expensive. Sometimes if we are away for a few days, we’ll get a ticket. We are willing to accept this punishment. We don’t want to ask a sitter to sit in our car or move it for us. However, we may ask a sitter to go to the car after aternate side parking is done and check to see if there is a ticket, and to remove the ticket and put it with our mail. If the ticket stays on the car it could look like the car was abandoned and make it a likely candidate for vandalism.
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We recently did a sit where the two cats needed to be hand fed raw organic rump steak!! It was the only food they would eat (discovered accidently) otherwise they would not eat at all! The hosts had been trying- for two years- to wean them off hand feeding without success- they just stopped eating every time… We were there for 16 days and by the end of the first week one of the cats started eating alone, followed soon after by the other cat! Quite by accident -when we left one plate down while chopping up more meat. The hosts were shocked and amazed! Which reminds me I must follow up with them to see if the new habits remained! 
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Did you see the episode of Dogs Behaving Badly where the steak not only had to be hand-fed, but also pre-chewed by a human?!
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I wish I have the opportunity to care for these exotic pets too one day. The walking bearded dragon seems interesting
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We did a brilliant off grid Thai sit with 36 animals including a bearded dragon called Bartje who ate live worms @Anne.323 and two giant tortoises @BonnyinBrighton called Song & See who loved baths 
Plus lots of birds, three dogs, fish and a big plot of land. Oh, and lived in a treehouse for it. #topsittingexperience
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What a fantastic topic @BonnyinBrighton - I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s input! I think @Becca’s story about the pig who liked custard creams and the Archers is my absolute favourite.
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I once had to make chicken food in a blender, from about 10 different ingredients, some of which I picked from the garden. The chicken had to be hand fed 4 times a day. It was a chicken with health problems.
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Once had to feed a tank full of tadpoles with lettuce (which had previously been frozen). Also had to remove the ‘debris’ out of the tank with a syringe that looked like a turkey baster. That was very therapeutic as I had to take great care not to suck up a tadpole at the same time.
None of this disclosed prior to the sit but such is the life of a pet sitter.
On the same sit I had geese tapping on the patio door for food.
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@Twitcher Wow! Tadpoles are not animals I expected to ever see discussed here 
I used to play with them in my grandparents’ garden as a kid. However they took care of themselves in small ponds.
Was the syringe complicated to handle?
The chicken feeding I mentioned above was not discussed with me either when I accepted the sit. They mentioned it casually a few days before the sit started.
No not difficult and I am glad they didn’t turn into frogs on my watch as they were in the kitchen. That would have been fun 
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I was once told to play opera to calm a cat. Good thing I like opera, too. His primary human was Italian, so I also spoke broken Italian to him.
He also seemed to like classical music, but I drew the line at Christmas music during summer.
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5o’clock tea was to be served to the dog on one sit I did, along with a biscuit. As in an actual cup of black tea. In case anyone was wondering, no, I did not follow through with this particular instruction.
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What a pleasure it is to read all these posts, so funny and so light when things can be so gloomy sometimes. Keep them coming guys, I’m getting a great belly laugh and am astounded by some of the stuff I’m reading. I’ve got nothing!
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Pet sit in Queensland.
Instructions for feeding the shark in the marine fish tank:
“Pop a prawn/shrimp in your hand between thumb and forefinger, lower your arm into the tank and let Nessie eat the prawn from your hand.”
Nope, nope, nope!
Our arms are covered in sunscreen, insect repellent, kitchen food residue, soap from showers, etc.
We did distraction feeding of the other fish, then used long barbeque tongs to lower the prawn down to the vicinity of the shark’s mouth. Feeding done, no problem!
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I think my weirdest was to sit on the floor with the cat as she ate, and litter tray to be cleaned and disinfected every single time it was used. Did I do either ?
@Dace
Do you mean throwing out the whole cat litter? Or how were you to clean and disinfect?
Sounds … (insert adjective here)
I’ve seen a sit for a dog where the owners requested that he listen to Classic FM on the radio for 3 hours every evening to calm his anxiety!
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