Amounts and essentials at dwarf scale
Write the routine with dwarf quantities spelled out, because a sitter used to standard rabbits will over-serve pellets and under-notice hay. State the small measured amount of pellets, the known greens, and above all the hay rule: hay available at all times and topped up at every visit, in a rack or pile a tiny rabbit can reach without climbing. Cover water bottle or bowl checks — physically confirm water flows or is fresh, since a small rabbit cannot afford a stuck bottle — litter spot-cleaning, and where every supply is stored, labelled, so dwarf portions are not confused with another pet's food.
Add environment notes: doors and pen latches checked twice, because a dwarf slips through gaps silently; no new treats; the room kept calm with other pets out during care visits.
Handling rules for a tiny, nervous rabbit
Be unusually explicit here. The sitter should handle your Netherland Dwarf as little as the care allows: approach at floor level, speak first, let the rabbit come to a hand, and for any necessary lift support the whole small body securely — never lift by scruff or ears, and never carry a dwarf across a room in one hand. Grooming and checks happen low over bedding or a lap, briefly. Many dwarfs are genuinely frightened by confident grabbing, and a frightened dwarf stops eating, which is the outcome the whole routine exists to prevent.
Note your individual dwarf's signals: what relaxed looks like, what hiding means, and the hand-fed herb that usually restores confidence after a clean-out.
The daily proof: eating, droppings, teeth
Ask for a daily confirmation, not a general assurance: hay eaten, pellets and greens taken, water drunk, droppings plentiful. Build in the dental watchpoints this breed needs — reduced hay eating while soft food is still taken, a wet chin, dropped food, smaller droppings — any of which means contact you the same day so a vet visit can be arranged. General red flags apply too: no droppings, hunched posture, teeth grinding, diarrhoea, discharge or wobbliness.
Leave your phone number, your vet's details including emergency arrangements, and written instructions for what the sitter may authorise if you cannot be reached, because with a rabbit this small, hours matter and hesitation helps nobody.
Agree the update rhythm before you go
Decide together how the sitter reports in: a short daily message with the eating and droppings confirmation and a photo of the dwarf if it is calmly available, plus immediate contact for any red flag. Show the sitter the pen routine once in person, watch them do the water and latch checks, and leave the full instructions in writing as well as in your message thread.
KinsLe Messenger keeps that sitter conversation, the routine and the daily Netherland Dwarf updates together in one per-pet hub, so nothing about the stay is scattered or lost.