Assume a willing beginner
Your sitter may be excellent with dogs and still have no idea what a dubia roach is or why the lizard's dinner needs powdering. Write for that person: no shorthand, no "feed as usual," no relying on them to judge portions by eye the way you do after years of habit. Every instruction should be followable word by word at the enclosure door, tired, on the first evening of your trip. Test the draft by asking whether a stranger could complete the feed without texting you a question — where the answer is no, add the missing detail.
Specify food, amount and preparation exactly
Name each food precisely and give quantities in counts and sizes, not handfuls: six medium roaches, one adult mouse, a salad the size of his head. Then walk through preparation in order — which insects come from which tub, what they were gut-loaded on, which powder goes on which day, how frozen prey is thawed in its bag and warmed through. Note where everything lives: feeders, powders, tongs, spare bulbs. If a step involves the blender-like details of your routine only you would know, such as the salad going in before the lights warm up, it goes on the page.
Cover water, lights and the daily glance
Feeding is only part of the sitter's real job. Write down the water routine — misting schedule, dripper top-ups, bowl changes — plus the light timers and the temperature readings the gauges should show at the warm and cool ends. Give the sitter a thirty-second daily check: animal active as usual, water present, lights on, enclosure latched. A sitter who knows what "normal" looks like in numbers will spot a failed heat mat on day one instead of day five.
The never list and the emergency page
End with two short sections. The never list: never handle the animal for a set period after feeding, never leave live prey alone with it, never feed anything from outside the supplies you left, never prop the enclosure open. The emergency page: your phone number, your reptile vet's name and address, and the two or three signs that mean "call me and the vet now" — an animal that is limp, gaping, bleeding or found cold and unresponsive. Put the instructions where the sitter cannot miss them, and share them through KinsLe's Care Pass: it hands your sitter temporary, clear access to the pet's care routine and key details for exactly the days you are away, so nothing depends on a fading printout.