Human food given to pets

Pet Parents, please be honest in your Welcome Guide in regards all food given to your pet(s). Housesitters do not seek to judge, rather to properly care for your pets (including appropriate calorie intake).

As experienced housesitters, we have completed several housesits where core pet diet was comprised of human food. We’ve seen all sorts of food intake. This is clearly stated in the listing and/or video call and in the Welcome Guide. During housesit, we duly honour Pet Parent request and feed pet(s) as prescribed by Welcome Guide. All good.

But we have also completed multiple housesits where Pet Parent, for whatever reason, elects to top-up pet food with human food. But only the pet food quantity is identified or quantified in the Welcome Guide. Sometimes this may be waste human food or not. Sometimes it may be trivial quantity and sometimes a whole lot. Sometimes it occurs on a rare occasion, sometimes routinely. This may result in inadvertent under-feeding of pet(s) or needless guesswork by a housesitter.

All resolvable with honest disclosures in a listing and quantified, even if estimate, of all foods in a Welcome Guide.

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Yes, we have experienced instances of having the sitters putting the animal on a diet or not being told about being fed from the table. It’s human nature to me and in most cases the pet was rotund and benefited from the reduced diet.

@Tomodore2, we don’t agree. If a Pet Parent considers that their pet(s) are overweight then the solution is not to lie to housesitters about the pet(s) typical calorie intake. Housesitters are not medical professionals or dietary experts. An underfed pet may experience significant distress and may even show anger towards the housesitter. If the Pet Parent wishes to reduce calorie intake then there are many available alternative solutions.