What Will Happen At My Consultation?

Before we start any service, we always carry out a consultation (AKA a meet and greet, initial visit, pre-service visit, etc). This session is free of charge (additional visits available at a small additional cost), and is the perfect opportunity for you, the owner, to meet us, the people who'll be caring for your pet(s), and ask any unanswered questions you may have (hopefully, our website will explain the main details).                               
We'll go over your service requirements, including your pet(s)' current routine, and ensure that the service we'll be providing is suitable for the animal, and that any times we've proposed are appropriate, and cause minimal disruption to their current routine, and confirm what the service includes.

We may ask you to give us a mini tour of all of the rooms/areas your pet(s) will have access to whilst we'll be caring for them, get you to show us where all of their belongings are kept (food, bowls, bedding, first aid, etc), as well as any cleaning products we may require, and if we're providing our overnight house sitting service, we'll ask you to show us where you'd like us to sleep.

As you may already be aware, all of our registration and booing forms are online, which are submitted to us on our website. If you would like, we can assist you in completing the forms during your consultation, if you have a laptop/PC set up.

For any new dogs who're going to be joining the Amity Pet Care family, we'll complete a health and temperament questionnaire, to give us a broad picture about where they're at with their training, their likes and dislikes, etc.

We can go through our terms and conditions during this session (you will have the opportunity to view these when you complete the forms), and we'll of course show you our insurance certificate (we will summarise what we are insured for, so you don't have to read through the jargon if you don't want to!). We can also show you our dog home boarding license, if appropriate, as well as our various certificates for the courses we've completed, talks and seminars we've attended, etc.

Owners tend to provide a spare set of keys during the consultation, however, if you're not ready to do so at this stage, you're welcome to drop them over to us, or we can provide an additional pre-service visit, where we can go over any final details and pick up the keys, for a small additional fee.

How Many Home Visits Should I Book Per Day?

We get asked fairly frequently, about how many home visits we'd recommend owners book each day. There are many different things to take into consideration, and we always provide a minimum of 2 cat or small pet visits each day (morning and late afternoon/early evening), and we can even offer thrice daily visits, and an overnight house sitting service, with the aim of maintaining each cat's routine as closely to normal as possible.

Here are just a few reasons why, to help you to make a slightly more informed decision:

• Under The Five Freedoms, all animals must have:

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst, by being provides with adequate fresh water, and the appropriate type and amount food.
2. Freedom of discomfort, by ensuring they have an appropriate environment, suitable shelter, and places to rest, etc.
3. Freedom from pain, injury, and disease, by preventing them from becoming injured or unwell, and rapidly seeking diagnosis and treatment should the above happen.
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour, by ensuring they have enough space, proper facilities to be suitable exercised and enriched, as well as companionship where appropriate.
5. Freedom from fear and distress, by ensuring that their conditions and treatment avoid mental suffering.
   
   In order to meet these needs, Amity Pet Care will ensure that cats and small pets are visited and monitored a minimum of twice each day, but also offer the option of thrice daily visits, or overnight house sitting, to suit the needs and routine of each individual cat.

• The majority of RTA's (road traffic accidents) occur at night time, so if you have a cat flap, or allow your cat to have access to outside, you should consider locking the flap, and keeping them safely inside with a litter tray from the evening, and reopen the flap from the morning.

• Cats will avoid using a soiled litter tray, which can lead to health, behavioural, and hygiene problems if they're either having to 'hold on', or are looking for alternative places to go to the toilet-this is why we always scoop out the litter trays both in the morning, and in the evening, and recommend clumping litters, as we're able to scoop them far more efficiently.

• Cats would naturally eat up to 10 small meals per day, so if they're only receiving one large meal each day, they may eat it all in one go, which can lead to vomiting, and other issues. Providing dry food in food balls, as well as other cat activity toys, are a great way to offer enrichment, and spread out mealtimes.

• Animals are very good at disguising when they're in any sort of pain or discomfort, often until it's unbearable-it's a natural survival strategy. It's best that animals are health checked at least twice each day, to allow for any subtle changes in behaviour to be detected and monitored. If we do ever have any concerns, we're able to promptly contact your Vet, and seek their advice.

• All cats must receive enough mental, social, and physical interaction and stimulation, to satisfy their individual behavioural needs, as well as plenty of opportunities and facilities to stay fit, active, and content. The more frequently animals are visited, the more companionship and enrichment can be provided. If animals don't receive enough attention, they can become bored and lonely. Naturally, cats would spend time outside hunting, climbing, exploring, but as domestic cats are provided with adequate food, it's important to provide the opportunity to still display these natural behaviours through stimulating play, etc.
  
• There is of course the added bonus of additional home security by being provided with 2 or more daily visits, as we can open and close curtains, pick up post, leave a light on at night, etc, making your home looked 'lived in'.
  
  

For further information, please visit www.AmityPetCare.co.uk/cat-sitting

Please refer to The Animal Welfare Act 2006, for further information.