One Page Per Vivarium, in Walking Order
Your friend does not need your life's work on reptile husbandry; they need a page they can follow at 8 a.m. with coffee in hand. Write one page for each vivarium, laid out in the order they will stand in front of it: first look (animal visible, posture normal), temperatures on the display and the range they should sit in, water or misting task, feeding task if that day has one, and lights or timers to confirm at the evening visit. Clip each page to its own enclosure so there is no matching names to tanks across a room of similar glass boxes.
Use the names your friend will actually use. If the label on the enclosure says 'Slinky' but your notes call him by a morph name, the plan fails at the first step. Photographs help more than descriptions: tape a small photo of each animal beside its page so a friend can confirm they are looking at the right resident.
Feeding Instructions a Non-Keeper Cannot Misread
Write feeding lines as exact, physical instructions: how many items, what size, where they are stored, how they are offered, and what to do with refusals. 'Feed the snake' becomes 'one thawed item from the labeled bag, warmed in a cup of warm water, offered with the long tongs after dark; if refused after ten minutes, bin it and text me.' For insect eaters, state the supplement for that specific day, because a friend cannot reconstruct your rotation, and pre-portion insects or prey into labeled tubs for each day so no judgment calls remain.
Also write what not to feed. A helpful friend may offer a tortoise fruit from their own lunch or give a frog an extra-large insect that looked exciting. One plain line — nothing except what is in the labeled tubs — prevents the most common sitter mistakes.
Water, Heat, and the Things Not to Touch
Amphibian and chameleon pages need water spelled out: which spray bottle holds treated water, how long to mist, and which dish gets topped up. Reptile water errors by sitters are usually source errors, not effort errors, so label bottles at the sink as clearly as the enclosure pages.
For heat and light, give your friend readings and switches, not adjustments. Tell them the number range to expect, that timers run themselves, and that the thermostat dial is never to be turned. List the two or three things that look alarming but are normal: a snake mid-shed with cloudy eyes, a frog buried out of sight, a chameleon sleeping pale at night. Without that list, normal sights generate midnight calls or, worse, well-meant interference like digging up the frog to check it is alive.
Emergencies, Access, and a Trial Run
End each page with three short scenarios and one action each: temperature outside the written range, animal out of its enclosure, water leak or cracked glass. Give the action your friend can actually take — switch to the labeled spare bulb shown in a photo, close the room door and text you before attempting anything, move the tub under the leak — plus your number, a backup person's number, and your reptile vet's number. Leave a spare key plan, alarm code if needed, and permission in writing for the vet in case you are unreachable.
If possible, have your friend do one supervised visit before the weekend. Ten minutes watching them mist, read a display, and find the spare bulb is worth more than an extra page of writing.
Alongside the printed pages, a KinsLe Care Pass hands your friend temporary access to each pet's full routine and key details on their own phone, so the one-page plan is backed up wherever they are in the house.