I’m wondering how hard it would be to find a vegan housesitter with lots of indoor rabbit experience for 1 month+ sit in Western Australia. Are there many of you out there? It would be good if THS had search options for both vegan, and also rabbits due to their complex needs.
It’s worth a try! Your sit appeals to me (as a vegan but with limited experience with rabbits) so it’s likely you’ll attract other sitters. The fact your house sit is 1+ month is in your favour, as many sitters enjoy being settled for a longer period of time.
Many people have specific requirements from sitters so I would suggest stating them in your tagline so as to filter out people who don’t meet your requirements. Depending on how far in the future the sit is, you could see what kind of reception your ad gets and then modify the criteria to open it up to more applicants, if necessary. Good luck!
I wonder a little bit about why it is important that a sitter is vegan?
I see several sits where it is asked not to bring into the home/made/eaten food with allergens or not to use kitchen/ utensils for items with religious cause (or vegan - which can differ greatly why someone is vegan and in effect what consequences that have for others).
I can totally understand why one has a health or belief-reason for not having foods in home, and would of course respect not to bring gluten into a celiac home or mix meat and dairy in a Jewish home. But requiring sitters to be vegan themselves will greatly impact the pol of sitters. At least the honest and respectful sitters (others might just lie ).
I think the chances of chceking ALL the boxes (1) vegan, (2) indoor-rabbit experienced AND looking for a 1-month plus sit in Western Australia would be tough. If you are clear in the listing that sitters must have rabbit experience, and must be willing to use only vegan products and have only vegan food on your property, you might find sitters who are also interested in your sit. As there are many sitters who use this site, you have a chance of finding the ideal person. The higher your standards “lots of indoor rabbit” and the more specific “vegan housesitter” the lower the chance of finding someone who always has the availability and desire to do your sit.
What you need to keep in mind is that this is not a “job.” So the motivation is travel and accomodation. There could be a some vegans who use this site as sitters, and have a lot of rabbit experience, but have booked up schedules, or don’t do 1 month sits, or have no interest in your location.
You might want to cast a wider net by also using other platforms.
Rabbit experience AND must be vegan, that’s quite a limited pool of sitters you’ve set for yourself.
How much lead time do you have before your trip? Why:
If you have significant time: It’s unlikely that you’ll find someone who threads the needle, but if you’re already a member and have a fallback plan for care, you might as well try and see what applicants you get.
If you’re not already a member, there’s a refund policy if you don’t get any applicant, but that offer disappears as soon as you get one, even if you deem them a poor fit.
Of course, if you try and get applicants who don’t tick all of your boxes, maybe you’ll ease up as a matter of practicality.
For some folks who aren’t vegan, a sit like this might give them impetus to try it for a stretch.
Or if you’re willing to ease up, as someone else mentioned, maybe your sitter doesn’t cook animal products onsite, but gets them as takeout or eats them elsewhere, like at a restaurant. (Like I don’t suppose that you require all your friends who visit to be vegan — they might eat or cook meat elsewhere.)
Personally, I’m a carnivore, but went full vegan for six months to try it out. And I don’t cook at all. I live on prepped food, takeout or eating out. Offering that as an example of someone who might match with you. (I’m not looking to sit in Australia.)
And BTW, you would want to specify how much rabbit experience applicants should have. Some sitters might have light experience. I’ve seen listings and comments where some rabbit people say they’re easy and don’t require much, if any experience. So some sitters might’ve sat under such circumstances. I imagine that if you’re leaving for a month+, more can go wrong.
We are looking for 1 month bunny sits in Western Australia. We have bunny sitting experience but we are no professional bunny sitters. There was a sit recently in Melbourne where they only accepted professional bunny sitters. We are vegetarians but will go vegan for the right sit
Good post. I’ve done sits for vegans that asked me as a non vegan not to cook meat in their kitchen. I was happy to accept sits on this basis. It’s about finding a respectful sitter.
Hi @BinkyBunny. I have some rabbit experience and am a vegetarian who happily shifts to vegan for extended periods for my own reasons. I’d also be interested in spending time in Western Australia, but I’d want to know how easily I could explore your area, and the dates would have to align. So, yes, we’re out there, but it is a lot of boxes to check for a very small pool.