Everything You Need to Know About Cremating a Pet at Home
Published August 10, 2022.
Losing a pet is often just as difficult as losing a friend or relative. To many people, their pet is their family so the loss they feel is immense. Due to the bond between pet and owner, many individuals decide to cremate their beloved pet themselves at home. While this may be frowned upon by other animal lovers (because it seems like a harsh way to lay your pet to rest), it's completely legal to cremate your pet yourself and may provide a sense of peace.
How to Prepare Your Deceased Pet's Body
Pets often die unexpectedly and while you prepare and gather the necessary materials needed for your cremation, you must keep the remains from decomposing too quickly.
Decay starts to set in almost immediately after death and rapidly accelerates within the first 24-48 hours. The best thing to do when caring for your pet after they die is to put them in a sealed plastic bag. If your pet is quite large you could use a garbage bag. The body then needs to be kept cold to slow down the decay process, so a big deep freeze is your best friend here. Put the body into the freezer until you're ready to proceed with cremation. Alternatively, if you don't have a large freezer, you can use dry ice or air conditioning.
The At-Home Cremation Process Explained
Materials
Below are the materials you will need to successfully cremate your pet at home:
- A metal container or a barrel large enough to burn your animal in. The inside of an old dryer is commonly used.
- Charcoal to keep the fire burning long enough.
- Potassium nitrate will create the heat that you need. The amount depends on the size of your pet. Stump remover is a good option for this.
- Burnable wood and kindling.
- A metal pan for collecting the ashes.
- A sledgehammer or heavy tool to crush remaining bones.
Make sure that your garden is large enough to perform the cremation SAFELY.
Process
You now have the necessary tools and can follow these steps to cremate your pet:
- Place your deceased pet on top of the metal pan and place some wood and charcoal around it. Then proceed to put the burnable wood on top and around the animal.
- Cover the entire fire generously with stump remover and some charcoal lighter fluid.
- Stand back as far as possible and start the fire. Keep the fire going as long as you need to reduce the contents completely to ashes (including microchips). Thicker bones will remain in the pan. These must be crushed while they are still warm.
You can then store your pet’s ashes however you wish to preserve the memory of them.
How Long Will At-Home Pet Cremation Take?
This depends entirely on the size of your pet and also the heat you are able to generate in your homemade crematorium.
- Small dogs - 30-45 minutes
- Large dogs - 1-3 hours
- Cats - 30-45 minutes
- Rodents - 15-30 minutes
- Reptiles - 30-45 minutes
- Horses - 6-10 hours
It's also advisable to add additional time to be on the safe side.
How to Care For Your Pet's Ashes
Once you have your pet's ashes, you can choose how best you'd like to honor them. Some common memorial options include:
- Scattering their ashes in a place they loved or a place you enjoyed taking them;
- Selecting to use a pet urn due to its purpose and picking a unique pet urn to house their ashes and display in your home;
- Placing their ashes in a form of cremation jewelry (keepsake urn);
- Planting their ashes near or with a new tree to symbolize them living on; or
- Having their ashes turned into a piece of pottery.
No matter what you choose, it's about remembering your pet and allowing yourself the time to grieve and heal.
Conclusion
Once a pet has passed on, they never fully leave us. Our hearts are full of special, memorable moments that will always make us smile when we think of them.
