Daily Feeding Entries Scaled to a Very Small Rabbit
The sitter's morning and evening lines should show hay refreshed and eaten, water checked, greens given, and the pellet feed measured as you specified — for a Netherland Dwarf the portion is genuinely small, and the log's job is to prove it stayed small, because well-meaning sitters routinely overfeed a tiny rabbit who begs convincingly. Droppings need comparing against the baseline you demonstrated before leaving: dwarf droppings are small at the best of times, so the entry should record whether output looks normal for this rabbit, reduced, or absent. Litter changes are logged with the output observation, since the tray is where a sitter reads a dwarf's gut most honestly. A dated line for each check turns two visits a day into a continuous picture rather than a final impression.
Handling, Hiding, and Behaviour Notes
Ask the sitter to record how the dwarf responded to approach and handling each visit — came forward, froze, retreated to a hide, or kicked when lifted — because a change in that pattern across the stay is meaningful for a prey animal this small. Note where the rabbit chooses to sit and whether it used its exercise space, and record any hunched, quiet sitting or teeth grinding in the moment it is seen. Escapes and near-escapes belong in the log without embarrassment: a dwarf who found the gap behind the sofa has given you the most useful safety information of the week, and it should be written down with where and how, not confessed vaguely at handover. Chewing incidents — a cable reached, skirting nibbled — are logged the same way.
Room Safety Checks Written Into the Routine
Build a brief safety line into each visit's entry: exercise-room door barrier in place, gaps behind appliances still blocked, cables out of reach, and the room's temperature comfortable, since a very small rabbit gets cold and overheats faster than a large breed. The sitter should note the heat pad or frozen bottle arrangements in extreme weather, whichever applies, and whether the dwarf used them. Water deserves a double check in a dwarf's log — a bottle ball can stick unnoticed, so the entry should confirm the bottle was tested and a bowl, if used, was clean and filled. These small confirmations, repeated daily, are what make a log protective rather than merely descriptive.
Escalation Rules Suited to a Dwarf's Speed of Decline
Write the red lines at the front of the log in unmistakable terms: not eating, no droppings, laboured breathing, a cold and limp rabbit, or a rabbit who cannot be roused normally means the vet is called immediately and you are messaged in parallel, under the signed authority on that page. A dwarf has very little reserve, so the instruction should explicitly free the sitter from waiting for your reply before calling. Smaller changes — one refused feed, output reduced at a single check — are logged and messaged the same day. Include the practice's out-of-hours clinic beside the main number, because dwarf emergencies rarely keep office hours.
The Return Handover and Filing the Log
When you come home, walk through the log with the sitter while the stay is fresh, ask about any entry that reads differently from the rabbit in front of you, and check the dwarf over — weight in hand, droppings in the tray, appetite at the first home feed. File the completed log with the health record, noting any escape gaps fixed as a result, so the next stay starts from a corrected room rather than a remembered one. Sharing the pellet measure, safety checks, contacts, and log format through KinsLe with Care Pass hands the sitter temporary access to the dwarf's care details for exactly the length of the stay.