The Ultimate Guide to Pet Cremation Leave a comment
Losing your furry friend is always painful, especially when you have spent a lot of time together and had unforgettable memories. Right after passing away your four-legged friend, it’s challenging to decide whether to cremate or bury the pet. Despite how difficult it is, you have to come up with one of the two options.
Pet parents who are never ready to say goodbye to their pet kid often end up choosing the cremation option. Both burial and cremation processes are painful, but in this process, you’re left with something of your best friend to remember. Of course, memories are there to remember the great time you’ve spent together, but something from their body can lower your pain somehow.
Furthermore, more than 90% choose to cremate their pet, which is obviously evidence of their love for their friend. The number continues to increase, and people are more interested to know about the process that falls in the remaining 10%.
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That’s why we compiled an ultimate guide to inform you about the complete process and everything you need to know about pet cremation. Let’s dive into the important details you should know to cremate your best friend.
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What is Pet Cremation?
Pet cremation is the same as human cremation. The process through with you ends up with the ashes of your pet. Some pet parents choose burial, and the remaining go for the cremation. It’s another way to keep something to remember the pet after memories you either stored in your brain or camera.
What Pets Can be Cremated?
Any pet can be cremated, but dogs, cats, and horses are often cremated. You can choose to cremate birds, rabbits, hamsters, or pets like monkeys as well. Since cats and dogs are mainly pets that most people have in their houses, we’ll go through details about them only. Otherwise, the process can be the same, but the cost varies only, depending upon the pet size.
What to Choose Cremation or Burying?
It’s entirely the pet parents’ choice to cremate or bury their pet kid. If you take a thorough look at burying, it can be painful to bury your furry friend far away from the house. In other cases, if you choose your yard to bury them, you may end up with a lot of digging, which can be challenging.
At the same time, you may end up with water or gas pipelines during the digging. Still, if you manage to dig the hole, you don’t have another option if you want to change your house. So, we can conclude that burying is not an easy option whatsoever.
On the other hand, cremation is the choice of most pet parents. Simultaneously, it’s quite a cheaper process, and you can keep the ashes wherever you go. Also, you hire professionals to do the process and get what you need at the end of the process. So, we can conclude that cremation looks easy, affordable, and most importantly, suitable for those who were too attached to their friend.
What type of Pet Cremation to Choose?
You have three options when cremating your pet. It depends on the cost and way of creating. Let’s go through each type to find out which one is suitable for you.
- Communal Cremation: You choose this type of cremation only when you’re low on a budget because, individually, the process can be quite expensive. In this process, multiple pets are cremated simultaneously. At the end of the process, every owner gets the combined ashes of their pets.
- Private Cremation: In this process, the cremation is kept private, and your pet is placed in a separate chamber from the other pets. The professionals guarantee that you’ll receive only your pet’s ashes.
- Witnessed Cremation: Since the process can be a little healing, people choose to watch their pets while being cremated. In this process, you’re allowed to witness the pet while going through the cremation. You can include your other family members too to witness the process. Again, the process can be either private or communal, depending on the cost you pay.
What is the Cremation Process?
The process includes incinerating the pet at a high temperature of around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. You get the ashes at the end of the cremation. To do so, the time it takes entirely depends upon the pet’s size. Usually, it takes around two hours to completely cremate your pet and give you the product.
However, when going through the process, the large pieces of bone may not be incinerated. In that case, they’re powdered to fine dust, just like the ash. The ash is delivered in either box, container, or enclosed compartment you choose. Most importantly, if you haven’t decided on the urns yet, you get the ashes in the plastic bag. Later you can choose to play in any urns you choose.
What is the Pet Cremation Cost?
The cost depends on the pet’s size and weight. It can be between $50 – $350; that also depends on the type of cremation type you choose, such as private cremation costs more than communal. This is the average cost of home pets. When it comes to horses, the cost varies between $250 – $1,500, again depending upon size, weight, and the type of cremation.
Furthermore, some more factors that can add to the original cost are timings. It means if you hire professionals other than working hours, it can be a little extra. Witnessing can also add to the total cost. Last, the type of urn you choose can be between $50 – $1,000.
What to Do with the Ashes?
People get confused as soon as they get the pet ashes. Of course, the cremation professionals give some suggestions too or offer their urns, but we got some useful ideas you can choose to contain the ashes. Let’s go through some ideas that can help to contain the ash you got.
Urns
The famous and affordable idea to store the ashes is pet urns. It comes in a wide range of designs, such as boxes, brasses, and more.
You have got more options in styles, sizes, and prices to get the one you desire.
Boxes
Other than urns, boxes are also famous, and you can access them in a wide range of styles, rates, and sizes. Depending upon the area you have in your house, they can be large, small, and medium.
You can also choose the one that matches your furniture since they come in wood of varying colors.
Headstone
It’s a great choice if you want to keep your pet’s memory in your garden. The headstones look stunning on the lawn.
You have got tons of variety in this category too, including the headstone having different shapes or written lines.
Bio Urn
This method may be a better choice for those who want their pet’s essence to live on after it is gone. This way, your loved one can always carry a part of its beloved companion with them wherever they go.
These urns are made from soil and ash, which makes them more environmentally friendly than other methods. So if yours is an animal lover at heart, this may be the way to go.
Jewelry
The best way to keep your pet’s memory close to yourself all the time is to get jewelry that can store the ashes.
In this category, you have choices too. It can be a necklace, ring, or anything you can wear.
Photo Urn
This is a great option for those who destroyed the urn in the same way they destroyed photos of their pet. For everyone else, it may be best to go with a more traditional method, so the aforementioned pet-lover doesn’t have to go through the trouble of finding a new burial spot, etc.
The ability to incorporate your pet’s ashes into a photo will serve as a daily reminder of its memory.
Keychain
HooAMI Silver Tone Pet Dog Paw with Cylinder Cremation Urn Keychain Keepsake Memorial Ashes Jewelry
Besides jewelry, another great idea is to get a keychain that you carry for the most part of your day.
Since the purpose is to keep the memories of your furry close to yourself throughout the day, it can be another effective way.
Scatter the Ashes
Some people, even after cremating their pets, choose to scatter their ashes. It can be a religious thing, but people do often scatter in water. So, if you have such beliefs, it can be another way to manage the ashes you got in a plastic bag.
Burial
Burying the pet and the ashes aren’t the same thing. Once you’re done going through the healing cremation process, which can calm or lower your pain to some level, you can choose to bury the pet later.
FAQs
How much does it take to cremate a pet?
The cost depends on the pet size, weight, and type of cremation you choose. Then comes the additional cost, which includes hiring someone other than working hours, the type of urns you choose and witnessing the process. On average, it cost between $50 to $1,500.
Do you really get your pet’s ashes back?
Yes, you do get only your pet’s ashes, and you ensure this to choose the witnessed cremation. Under this type, you get to witness the entire process and get the ashes at the end. You get only your pet’s ashes in private cremation too.
Is it better to cremate or bury a pet?
If you find digging quite challenging and don’t want to bury your friend away from your house, cremation can be useful. Even if you bury in your house, you may change the house after some years. In that case, cremating seems appropriate because it’s another way to keep the pet’s memory close to you, besides photos.
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Final Words
Losing your four-legged friend is always painful, but what’s the best you can do once you lose them is choose the right way to say goodbye. In that case, you have two major options. So choose the one that satisfies you and heals your pain.
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