Guide
Leaving freeze-dried salmon with your dog sitter
Updated
Salmon treats for dog sitters work best with a short note taped to the pouch. Write the daily share by weight from the calculator on our product page, say if it is a treat or a topper, and copy the bag's lines on water, supervision, hand washing and resealing. Add your vet's number at the bottom.
What should a dog sitter know about salmon treats?
Four things, and all of them fit on an index card. What the pouch is, how much your dog gets in a day, how to handle it, and who to call. The pouch is 1.5 oz of wild-caught salmon and nothing else, freeze-dried raw in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Raw is the word a sitter should notice, so the note carries the bag's hand washing line. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it."
Leaving treats with a dog sitter is easier when the sitter does not have to guess at anything. Give the amount as a weight, not as "a few pieces", and give it per day. Say where the pouch lives and what to do when the day's share is gone.
Treat instructions for a pet sitter should read like the note you would leave about the thermostat: short, specific, nothing to interpret.
How much salmon should you leave for each day?
The number comes from you, not from the sitter. Take your dog's daily calories from your vet or the food bag, type them into the treat budget calculator on our product page, and read off the weight. Its default share is 10 percent of the number you enter, turned into grams and ounces with the label's 85.6 kcal per ounce, give or take. Our guide on how many salmon treats a day walks through the method.
Your veterinarian sets the real share, which may differ from the default. Whatever the final number is, write it on the note in grams or ounces, and write it per day. A sitter with a scale can match it; a sitter without one can at least see how the day's share compares to the 1.5 oz pouch.
If salmon is the only treat while you are away, the daily weight is the whole treat budget. If the sitter also has other treats from you, say so on the note and let the vet's share cover all of them.
How do you set out each day's share ahead of time?
Weigh each day's salmon before you leave and put it in its own container, labeled with the day. The sitter then opens one container per day and never has to touch the scale or the pouch.
The label's only storage instruction is to reseal the pouch and keep it cool and dry. Any container you pick for the daily shares is your own choice, and we make no claim about how long broken pieces keep in it. Day to day, our storage guide keeps spare broken pieces in the pouch; the labeled containers are only a handover convenience.
Leave the rest of the pouch sealed, in the spot named on the note. The bag says: "Reseal the pouch once it is open and store it cool and dry." If the sitter does need to open it, that line is the whole instruction.
What does the bag tell a sitter to do?
The bag has five short lines about feeding and storage, and the note should carry all of them. Here is the note itself, ready to copy:
- Daily salmon: the weight from the calculator, in grams or ounces, per day. Stop when the dish is empty.
- Use: treat or meal topper. The bag says: "Feed as a treat or meal topper." It is not a complete diet, so regular meals carry on as normal.
- While feeding: put out fresh water and stay in the room. The bag says: "Provide fresh water and supervise while feeding."
- After: wash your hands. The salmon is freeze-dried raw, and the bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it."
- Storage: reseal the pouch and keep it cool and dry, in the spot named here.
- Questions: the vet's name and number, then yours.
Salmon treats while you are away are the same salmon treats as any other day. The note just moves the routine from your head to the sitter's hand. Anything this note does not cover may be on one of the pages in our guides hub.
Questions
Can a sitter use salmon as a topper?
Yes, if your note says so. The bag says: "Feed as a treat or meal topper." For the topper, the listing's idea is a piece crumbled over kibble or a raw meal. Tell the sitter that anything crumbled over dinner comes out of the same daily weight as the pieces handed over, so the day's dish covers both.
Should I leave the whole pouch or each day's share?
Leaving each day's share weighed out in its own container is the simplest handover, since the sitter never has to measure. Leave the sealed pouch as well, with the bag's reseal line on the note, in case a container is spilled. Either way the amount per day is the number you wrote, not the sitter's guess.
What if my dog is on a vet-set diet?
Then the vet's instruction goes at the top of the note, above everything else. The calculator is fixed at its 10 percent default, so if the vet gave a different treat share, write the vet's amount on the note instead, or leave salmon out entirely if that is the instruction. Write the vet's phone number on the note so the sitter can check rather than guess.
Does a sitter need to wash hands after salmon treats?
Yes. The salmon is freeze-dried raw, and the bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." Put that line on the note word for word. It applies after handing out pieces, after crumbling a topper and after moving the pouch, every time.
Can the sitter give salmon to my cat too?
Our listing covers cats as well as dogs, with the instruction to break a piece small or crumble it over food. The calculator is written for dogs, so the cat's amount is your vet's number, and it goes on the note as a separate line.
Can I send salmon treats to a boarding kennel?
Ask the kennel. Boarding with your own treats is governed by each kennel's own rules on outside food, and we cannot speak for them. If they say yes, send the same note you would leave a sitter, with the daily weight, the bag's lines and your vet's number, and the sealed pouch.