I haven’t done many sits yet but 2 have been smallholdings with various animals. On the first there were;
40 hebridean sheep
3 horses
2 dogs
1 cat
Approx 6 ducks
About 6 chickens
58 in total.
Had flooding during the 1st stay. Rescued some furniture from the river at bottom of hill below the house and moved the sheep from an at risk field to higher ground. I have been back since too.
2nd sit
2 alpacas
2 dogs
Numerous guinea pigs
Quite a few hens, I think about fifteen.
Another good fun sit with egg hunting as an added bonus.
We had one sit with 2 dogs, a fish pond full of Koi, a turkey, a cockeral, many chickens & ducks- i don’t remember how many (±20)and a pair of Emus!!
Another Sit we had 2 dogs, 3 guinea pigs, 4 rabbits, a hamster and a fish tank full of tiny tropical fish- which lost power during a storm! Very stressful trying to keep them oxygenated and alive till it was fixed!
Another favourite was a gorgeous golden labrador, a guinea pig and a herd of 50 deer to keep an eye on! Mornings and evenings when the deer came close felt like being in the Serengeti!
Suemog has not only broken my and all other records mentioned in this thread with regards to the number of animals looked after during one sit, but also he or she has set another record challenge, too, which I would call:
MASTERING A HUGE PROBLEM, LIKE A NATURAL DISASTER, AND SAVING ANIMAL LIVES
Hello Smiley, such a farm sit with many animals can actually be easier than a sit with one dog who has to be walked on a lead four times a day! Both scenarios will require about the same time of “work” per day - about 2 hours max.
In a “normal” farm setting the dogs will go to toilet on their own outdoors without having to be walked on a lead, so you only pick up the poo every second day or so. The cats do the same, but you will hardly ever find their poo as they dig it up. So, all the work left is feeding two times a day and cleaning up poo and, in some cases, collecting eggs and moving the farm animals from one place to another. On the weekends you may have some extra cleaning work to do, such as exchanging the straw in stables and chicken houses etc. but in general you can do it all within 2 hours a day and an extra 2 hours once a week. Farm sits with many animals are indeed no harder than looking after one single super-demanding neurotic spoiled smooch in a city flat!
It’s been pre Covid but we cared for a farm in Birmingham, UK. We had…2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bunny, 1 HUGE pig, 2 donkeys, 2 goats, 16 sheep, 20 geese, 6 chickens, 20 ducks, 12 alpacas. We knew what we signed up for and had the most awesome time!!! It’s ranked in our top 3 sits.
Yes I have. Sounds very similar to what you’re doing now. I had six horses, dozens of chickens, peacocks eat goats, two working dogs, three pet dogs, a litter of working puppies that were being trained up. I think that’s it and it was a blast. I loved it, and I would go back in a minute.
@Romana I’m 58, I’m not a full time van lifer, just love travelling with the van and dogs. I’ve taken my dogs with me on the sits I’ve done so far. They’re good dogs and have all got on well with pets on site. There are obvious things to be aware of, such as not mixing the dogs with animals that may be skittish, such as young horses, giving cats room and generally remembering that my focus is the pets I’m there to look after.
My older dog is fascinated, maybe not in a good way, by rabbits and guinea pigs. He’ll sit and stare at them, so I’d never leave him unattended with them.
I am restricted in the type of sits I would consider or be accepted for, but as I’m not a full time sitter that’s not too much of an issue. I think I’ll hopefully be successful with some sits this year.
Hi @EMBOWLES and welcome to the forum. Looks like you have had some great furballs to care for. What kind of working dogs and puppies did you care for? I’m always interested in learning more about farm life. My husband and I stayed at an AIRBNB in Virginia, USA that was a working farm and they had four working dogs…three of which were pregnant. Subsequently, all three have now had their pups. Two of them had litters of eleven pups and one had a litter of ten. Lots and lots of work for those moms!
It was 16 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 dogs, 2 cats. Ended with 20 as a mink got one of the ducks and a racoon got a chicken. Those were sad days but we did love them all up as much as possible and the ducks followed us everywhere and one chicken liked to be carried pretty much all the time.
Another record we liked was oldest animal and Percy is a 40+ year old parrot (he’s 10 years older than his species normally lives).
We are currently on a 4 week sit in the Cotswolds, UK that we are really enjoying. A record breaking sit for us with the following pets:
3 green tree pythons
69 corn snakes
5 geckos
4 salamanders
4 tanks of fish and shrimp
4 hens
1 cockerel
1 green-cheeked conure
So I think around 91 pets in total although I’m not up for counting the individual fish haha.
The snakes are all beautiful colours and the lovely owners take such good care of everyone. The Green-Cheeked Conure has stolen our hearts and we will very much miss her when we go.
She knows a few phrases such as Bedtime, Pretty Girl, Cute Baby, Would you like some toast?, Cooeee (when you enter the house) - they are the ones she says the most.
We enjoy caring for chickens and would love to care for parrots as we used to own a rescue parrot and also looked after our friend’s African Grey. I’d quite like to do a sit with a reptile or two, but I can’t even imagine what 69 corn snakes would look like! I do know they are fairly small.
We live on the edge of the Cotswolds in Cheltenham.
One of the owners is a biologist and underwater photographer and they both adore animals so I think have a passion for reptiles mostly. The snakes are all in one room in individual tanks with lots of boxes and hammocks for stimulation. They are all the most low maintenance pets out of the group, they were fed before we arrived so we just change their water every few days. We didn’t know much about reptiles before we arrived but we spent a day with the owners for a handover so we felt very prepared
