Burlingame Exotic Pet Sitter
If you live in Burlingame, odds are you are at SFO more often than you would like — and the one question that keeps coming up the night before a 6 a.m. flight is who is going to watch the chinchilla? Burlingame has the unusual distinction of being the closest Peninsula city to the airport, which means the pet parents we visit here tend to be frequent flyers: biotech folks heading to Boston, product managers catching the red-eye to JFK, families flying out of SFO for a long weekend in Kauai. Exotic pets do not travel well, and most conventional boarding facilities are not equipped to handle a bonded pair of rabbits, a bearded dragon with a specific UVB schedule, or a cockatiel who only eats if someone whistles back. That is the gap our team fills.
House of Guineas Pet Care is based in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, and our team of exotic pet caretakers travels down the Peninsula to provide in-home care for Burlingame families and their little ones. We handle everything from the Easton Addition to Mills Estate, and we are comfortable driving past the Hyatt Regency at 4:45 a.m. so you can make your boarding call on time.
Why Burlingame Exotic Pet Owners Choose Our Team
Burlingame is a town full of people who sweat the details — tech professionals, clinicians, educators, designers — and what pet parents tell us they need is a sitter who approaches exotic pet care with the same rigor they bring to their own work. Here is what sets us apart:
- Veterinary background. Our veterinary-informed team brings backgrounds spanning wildlife rehabilitation to exotic veterinary hospital work. Our founder previously worked as an exotic veterinary assistant and volunteered with the House Rabbit Society in Richmond, administering subcutaneous RHDV2 vaccines. Every caretaker on our team is trained under that same clinical lens.
- Species specialization. Exotic pets and cats are our whole focus — rabbits, rodents, reptiles, and birds. That focus is hard to find on the Peninsula.
- Clinical-grade care. We can syringe-feed a GI stasis rabbit, weigh a guinea pig on a gram scale, check a reptile’s enclosure humidity, and recognize the early signs of a crop issue in a parrot. We also know the local exotic vet landscape — Peninsula Pet Hospital right in Burlingame, Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, and All Pets Hospital in San Mateo — so if something goes sideways while you are in Zurich, we know exactly where to go.
- Flexible scheduling. Early-morning visits before an SFO departure, late-night visits after a redeye arrival, and mid-day medication timing — we build the schedule around your flight manifest, not the other way around.
Exotic Species We Care For in Burlingame
- Small mammals — rabbits (including bonded pairs and trios), guinea pigs, chinchillas, ferrets, hamsters, rats, degus, hedgehogs
- Reptiles — bearded dragons, leopard geckos, crested geckos, ball pythons and other non-venomous snakes, turtles and tortoises
- Birds — parrots, cockatiels, conures, budgies, lovebirds, finches
If your species is not listed, call or text us — if we have not handled it, we will tell you honestly and usually point you to someone who has.
How It Works in Burlingame
We start with a free meet-and-greet at your home — a real-time walkthrough of feeding routines, enclosure setup, medication schedules, and your pet’s quirks. For Burlingame pet parents, this usually happens on a weekend or after-work window that fits Caltrain schedules and the walk-home-from-Burlingame-Avenue-dinner rhythm most residents run on.
Once you book, we schedule visits around your travel itinerary. Most exotic pets do well with twice-daily visits — morning and evening — so you can get a fresh salad into the rabbits before work and a proper lights-out check on the reptile enclosure after dinner. We send photo and video updates from every visit, plus written notes on appetite, output, and behavior. If something seems off, we reach out before you land.
Burlingame Neighborhoods We Serve
- Easton Addition
- Burlingame Park
- Burlingame Hills
- Lyon Hoag
- Burlingables (east of El Camino, near downtown)
- North Burlingame
- Mills Estate
We also cover the stretch between Washington Park and Ray Park, homes near Mercy High School and Burlingame High, and the Mills Park pocket near the San Mateo border. If you are closer to Coyote Point Recreation Area or the Burlingame Pier, we have got you too.
Pricing for Burlingame Visits
- 30-minute visits start at $85
- 60-minute visits start at $125
- Twice-daily care runs $155–$215/day depending on visit length and number of pets
Burlingame is in our Peninsula service tier, so a travel surcharge of $15–$25/visit applies, depending on distance from our Inner Sunset base. Text us your address and dates and we will confirm your rate.
Routine care lands in Burlingame, too. Standing weekly or every-other-week routine care visits are built for the stretches between SFO trips when you are home but running on fumes — their caretaker takes on the enclosure deep-clean, hay restock, weigh-ins, and a gentle health check, so your time with your little ones stays the easy, happy part.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you really travel to Burlingame for exotic pet care?
Yes. Our team travels from San Francisco to Burlingame via the 101 and 280 corridors. Burlingame's proximity to SFO makes it one of the most common Peninsula requests we receive.
I'm flying out of SFO — can you cover same-day visits?
Often, yes — especially for the pet parents we already visit. Burlingame is about a ten-minute drive from SFO, so our team can slot in an early-morning visit before a late-morning departure, or a same-evening visit after you land. For families new to us, we still need a meet-and-greet in advance, so it is best to text us as soon as your trip is on the calendar.
What if my exotic pet needs medication while I'm traveling?
Bring the med list to the meet-and-greet and consider it handled. Oral syringe dosing, topical treatments, and subcutaneous injections are all standard scope for our caretakers, alongside nebulizer treatments — a clinical bar that traces back to our founder's earlier work administering subcutaneous RHDV2 vaccines at the House Rabbit Society. We match your vet's protocol exactly, and for pet parents timing doses around SFO departures, we build the visit schedule so nothing slips while you are in the air. For signs that something is escalating, see our guide on signs your guinea pig needs a vet.
Can I board my exotic pet with you instead of in-home sitting?
Yes. Boarding happens up in San Francisco, hosted personally by members of our team in their homes, and Burlingame families are very welcome to make the short drive up. Boarding runs $125 per night, your pet gets their own room with soothing music, and we ask that you bring their usual enclosure and supplies. Details are on the boarding page.
How much does a Burlingame exotic pet sitter cost?
Plan on $85 for a 30-minute visit and $125 for a full hour. Most traveling families book twice-daily care, which runs $155–$215 per day depending on visit length and how many little ones are on the roster. Burlingame sits in our Peninsula tier, so a travel surcharge of $15–$25/visit applies, depending on distance — text us your address and travel dates and we will confirm your exact rate before you ever reach the SFO security line.
Ready to lock in coverage for your next trip? Call or text us at 415-484-6493 and we will get a meet-and-greet on the calendar. You can also read more about our in-home exotic pet care service, browse the full FAQ page, or look through our Bay Area exotic veterinarian directory if you are still getting set up with a local vet. New guinea pig parents in Burlingame — our guinea pig care guide is a good starting point.