How Do I Properly Cremate a Pet at Home?

If your family pet has recently died, consider a unique way of remembering your furry friend instead of merely burying Fido or Kitty in your backyard. You may be considering having your pet cremated, so you can either spread the ashes in a special place where you and your pet frequently spent time together outdoors or keep them in an urn. However, if you’re on a tight budget, you might decide that you’re going to cremate your pet at home. How do you properly cremate a pet at home? Here is a complete overview.

Making Certain You Have Adequate Space

Before committing to performing animal cremation at home, you first need to determine whether or not you have adequate space. How much space is needed? The specific amount of space you need to cremate your pet properly will depend on several factors. First, the barrel or container size you will use for the process is important. Secondly, you need a large backyard or field to complete the process. There will be a large amount of smoke and fumes during the cremation procedure, and you don’t want to be a nuisance to your neighbors. 

If you live in an apartment complex, you can forget trying to cremate your pet at home. You must devise another option unless you have a friend or family member’s place to use. A home in a rural area where other houses and businesses aren’t right next door would be ideal. However, if you have plenty of open space, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Gathering the Proper Equipment

Cremating an animal isn’t as simple as placing the cat, dog, or another animal in a barrel and lighting a match. The fire must reach an extremely high temperature to adequately turn your pet’s body, including the bones, into ash. The magic temperature is somewhere around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. However, setting your pet’s body on fire will not achieve this required temperature. Chemicals will be necessary, and potassium nitrate is a good choice. Potassium nitrate is a naturally occurring chemical that can also be produced synthetically. It has many uses, and it’s even used as an active ingredient in certain toothpaste, as it helps to reduce tooth sensitivity.

When used in cremation, this chemical makes reaching the required temperature possible. Finding potassium nitrate shouldn’t be difficult, as most hardware stores carry this compound. You could also purchase it online, and performing an internet search should pull up several possibilities. 

In addition to the heat accelerant, you will need a proper barrel or metal container to easily fit the animal’s body. Some people use the inside of an old dryer, but if you don’t have one, you can use a similar container. In addition, you’ll need firewood, charcoal, and a sledgehammer or similar tool. This tool will make it easy to crush any remaining bone, which will assist in the process of turning everything into ash. 

How Long Will the Cremation Take

The time it takes to cremate your pet will depend on how hot your fire is and the size of your pet. The average time is one-two hours, which could be shorter or significantly longer. A cat, bunny, or small dog could be cremated in as little as 30-45 minutes at a temperature of at least 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, while an extremely large dog or horse could take as long as six hours. 

The Emotional Impact of Cremating Your Own Pet

Cremating your own pet will likely have a serious emotional impact on you and your family, either positive or negative. If the experience is positive and you’ve managed to cremate your pet properly, it could be a healing experience that could help you get over the grieving process more quickly. However, everyone is different, and you never know if you might have a difficult time cremating your special pet. The smell or even the act itself could trigger an immense sadness that could make you regret performing the cremation on your own. Also, crushing your precious pet’s bones with a sledgehammer can be too much for many pet owners to bear. Fortunately, there is an alternative to performing a DIY cremation service for your pet.

Professional Pet Cremation Services

While cremating your own pet can seem like a great way to get the job done and save money, cremating a pet at home is not always as easy as it might seem. Again, following through with cremation can be impossible if you don’t have adequate space or the proper equipment. Regardless of why you’re unable to perform the cremation process at home, fortunately, professional pet cremation services are available. Animal Family Pet is a great choice that many pet owners turn to when their pets pass away. It doesn’t matter where you live because there are several options for getting your pet’s body to us. Peruse our website or contact us for more information about this and more.

If you have decided you’d rather have your pet cremated without the hassle of doing it yourself, call us at Animal Family Pet Preservation. We have been providing cremation and other services for deceased pets since the early 90s, and we’re ready to provide the same top-notch services that we provide to all our clients. Our professional and empathetic staff members will meet with you to discuss your options, costs, and more, all while going above and beyond to ensure your entire experience is positive. We will also discuss convenient payment plans to make pet cremation more affordable, so contact us today.

Categorised in: Cremation Services

This post was written by mmaier