A simple guide to keepsake sizes: how much a memorial pendant, keyring and small urn hold, and a rule of thumb for matching an urn to your pet's size.
Choosing a keepsake is easier when you know roughly how much it will hold. This guide explains the typical sizes of memorial pendants, keyrings and small urns, and gives a simple rule of thumb for matching an urn to your pet.
The short answer
Memorial pendants and keyrings hold only a pinch of ashes or a small tuft of fur, usually well under a teaspoon. Small keepsake urns hold a portion, for example 100 to 200ml. To keep all of a pet's ashes, a common rule of thumb is to allow about 35ml of urn space for every kilogram your pet weighed.
Typical keepsake sizes
- Pendants and cylinder necklaces: a small chamber closed with a screw, made for a pinch of ashes or a few strands of fur.
- Keyrings and capsules: similar to pendants for ashes; clear fur capsules hold a small tuft of brushed fur.
- Small keepsake urns: made to sit on a shelf and hold a portion of ashes. Our ceramic keepsake urn holds about 200ml.
- Full-size urns: sized to the whole of a pet's ashes, usually supplied by the crematorium or bought separately.
The size rule of thumb
A widely used guideline is about 1 cubic inch of urn space per pound of body weight, which works out at roughly 35ml per kilogram. It is only a guide: the volume of ashes varies with bone density and breed, so if you are between sizes, choose the larger one.
- A 4kg cat: roughly 140ml
- A 10kg dog: roughly 350ml
- A 30kg dog: roughly 1 litre
By this guide, a 200ml keepsake urn suits the ashes of a cat or very small dog, or a portion of a larger pet's ashes.
Sharing ashes between keepsakes
Many families divide ashes: most stay in the main urn or are scattered, and a little goes into keepsakes for different people. When you collect the ashes from the crematorium, you can ask whether they can set aside small amounts for jewellery.
Filling and sealing
Work slowly over a tray, use the small funnel or a folded piece of paper, and seal pendants with a drop of jewellery glue on the thread if they will be worn every day. Our step-by-step guide explains how to fill a keepsake pendant, and you can browse all fur and ashes keepsakes and memorial jewellery.