Pet boarding over Chinese New Year in Singapore

Chinese New Year is one of the busiest times for pet boarding in Singapore. Owners who travel, and owners with relatives filling the flat, all look for the same dates. If you already know you will be away, our friendly tip is to contact boarders a couple of months ahead rather than a couple of weeks.

Christmas and the June school holidays get busy too. The same habits help: a deposit, a vaccine deadline, and a clear answer about what happens if your flight is delayed.

What to confirm in writing

• The facility is on the AVS registry of licensed pet boarding facilities. Our boarding directory is built from that registry, with contact details where the business publishes them.
• The dates, the daily rate, and which days have a festive rate. Public holidays may cost more than a Tuesday.
• Which vaccines they need, and the latest date they can be given. A kennel-cough jab on drop-off day is often too late.
• Whether they take cats, only dogs, or unsterilised pets. “Pet boarding” does not always include cats.
• What they do if your pet falls ill: which vet they use, and when they will call you before treatment.
• Drop-off and pick-up hours. Many Sungei Tengah farms are not near an MRT, so plan a car or pet taxi.

If the boarders are full

A pet sitter who stays in your flat, or who looks after one pet in their own home, is the usual alternative. You are trusting a person rather than a licensed premises, so it helps to ask who else is in the home, what happens in an emergency, and whether they are insured. Our pet-sitting article walks through that choice.

We would gently suggest avoiding a week alone with a neighbour “popping in”, and being wary of unlicensed places offering last-minute space in chat groups. The busy weeks are when it pays to stick with the checks above.