Feeding: exact foods, exact amounts, no guesswork
Guinea pigs cannot afford vague instructions. Their digestion depends on constant fibre and they cannot make their own vitamin C, so write the feeding section as a daily schedule with quantities your sitter can copy without interpreting: unlimited hay, topped up morning and evening, with the hay store pointed out; the measured amount of pellets per pig per day, naming the usual type; and the vegetables your pigs actually eat, listed by name and rough portion — a couple of pepper strips, a small handful of leafy greens — rather than "some veg." A sitter who has never kept guinea pigs may helpfully offer foods your pigs have never had, and new foods in holiday quantities are a reliable route to soft droppings and a miserable pig.
Add water explicitly: bottles checked twice a day by squeezing for flow, bowls rinsed and refilled, because a blocked bottle nozzle is a silent emergency a checklist catches. Note where everything lives — hay, pellets, vegetables in the fridge, spare bottles — and what to buy if supplies run low.
Cleaning and housing routine
Describe cleaning as you actually do it: spot-cleaning wet patches and droppings daily, the full bedding change on whichever day it falls due during the stay, and where dirty bedding goes. Name the bedding to use and any product to avoid, and note how the enclosure opens and closes if it has a fiddly lid or ramp your pigs use. If your pigs have floor time, explain the setup and supervision honestly, including cables or rooms that are off limits; if they do not usually come out, say so, so a kind sitter does not improvise an escape opportunity.
Temperature deserves a line of its own: guinea pigs cope poorly with heat and draughts, so tell the sitter where the enclosure thermometer is if you have one, what to do on a hot day — shade, airflow, a cool tile — and never to move the enclosure into a garage or car for convenience.
Handling, companionship, and normal behaviour
Tell the sitter what normal looks like for your pigs: who is bold, who hides, typical noises, favourite hiding spots, and how they take food. That portrait is how a sitter spots trouble early. Be direct about handling: how to lift safely with support under the body if your pigs are used to it, or that one pig should not be picked up at all and can be moved in a hide or carrier instead. Note bonded pairs plainly — they stay together for every clean-out and move, no exceptions.
Include the warning signs that should trigger a phone call the same day: a pig not eating or leaving favourite foods, hunched posture and quietness, laboured or noisy breathing, droppings stopping or turning watery, or any injury. With prey animals, "seems a bit off" from a sitter who knows the normal portrait is information worth acting on, not reassurance to file away.
Contacts and a test run
Close the sheet with your mobile number and when you will be reachable, your vet practice and its out-of-hours arrangement, and the location of the carrier. Leave the sheet at the enclosure, walk the sitter through one feed and clean before you go if you possibly can, and invite questions in the first day rather than silence.
A good sitter sheet means your pigs' routine survives your holiday intact. KinsLe's Care Pass gives your sitter temporary, clear access to your guinea pigs' care routine and key details while you are away, so the feeding amounts, cleaning rhythm, and vet contacts you wrote are in their hands at the moment each job comes due.