Rabbit, Hamster, and Bird Cremation — Sometimes There Are No Ashes

Last updated: August 15, 2026

There's plenty written about cremation for dogs and cats, but the moment it's a rabbit, hamster, or parakeet, the information thins out fast. And a few of the basic assumptions that hold for dogs and cats don't carry over here. Since prices vary by region, what matters more than the numbers themselves is a way of looking at this that holds regardless of where you live.

First: About the Ashes

If your pet is small enough, there may be almost no ashes left after cremation — even with individual cremation. The bones themselves are thin enough that the heat of cremation doesn't leave much behind.

This isn't something a company tells you to manage expectations — it's written on municipal official pages. And cities far apart from each other, independently, say the same thing.

• Mikasa City, Hokkaido — states outright that "due to the nature of the animal cremation furnace, bones may not remain after cremating small animals"
• Yamagata City — for birds, hamsters, and similar, ashes can't be returned because collecting the bones is physically not possible
• Yoshikawa City, Saitama — individual cremation at Koshigaya City Crematorium lets you collect and take home the bones, but "small pets such as small birds and hamsters may leave no ashes"
• Mishima City, Shizuoka — states outright, "we cannot return small pets' ashes"
• Minoh City, Osaka — has a system for returning ashes, but hamsters, parakeets, fish, and similar are excluded

Cities from Hokkaido to Osaka, with completely different furnaces and systems, arrive at the same conclusion for the same reason. This isn't something that changes if you pick a different region or company (Odawara City, Kanagawa, does return ashes for dogs and cats, but even there notes that "puppies and kittens may leave no ashes").

Private companies' price lists include "individual unattended" and "witnessed individual" plans for small pets too — the tiers that come with ashes returned. But a price list saying ashes are included, and ashes actually surviving cremation, are two different things.

Call and ask before booking, including what happens if nothing remains. A simple way to ask:"My pet is a [species] weighing about [X]g — if I choose individual cremation, will there be ashes to bring home?"

※This isn't a certainty either way — it depends on size and cremation conditions. Pets around rabbit-sized tend to leave ashes more often. The point here is not to assume ashes will remain just because a plan says "ashes included."

Private Cremation Company Rates

As a real-world reference, here are the smallest weight-bracket rates from mobile cremation companies operating in Tokyo, taken from their official sites (checked August 2026). The numbers themselves vary by region, but the underlying pattern — brackets that aren't drawn the same way, and companies where you can't tell the all-in total — holds everywhere. You can check a company in your own area using the same approach.

※Remember You prices by species at a flat rate: ¥15,000 for hamsters and birds, ¥17,000 for ferrets, chinchillas, and guinea pigs, and ¥18,000 for rabbits (all excl. tax). Two other companies (Pet Kasou Happiness and Pet Sōgi 110-ban) didn't publish a small-pet rate on their official sites — they price by quote instead.

The brackets really do vary this much in practice. Some companies use "1kg and under," others "under 2kg," and some set a flat rate by species instead of weight.

A hamster runs around 50g, a budgerigar around 40g, a rabbit 1–2kg. Even within "small pets," that's more than a 20x spread in weight — and many companies lump all of it into a single bracket.

For communal cremation, the cheapest rate is ¥8,800 and the priciest is ¥18,700 — more than double, and that gap comes from company pricing, not body size. If Tokyo alone spreads this wide, expect the level to shift again outside Tokyo. When you get a quote in your own area, the same rule as with dogs and cats applies: only compare matching brackets against each other.

Using Municipal Pickup

Municipal pickup is an option here too, but the differences between cities run even wider than with dogs and cats. Handling varies a lot by municipality. Here are examples that show how much it varies.

• Sapporo City — fees are split by species: dogs/cats ¥6,000, rabbits/monkeys ¥4,000, pigeons/chickens etc. ¥2,000, mice/hamsters etc. ¥1,000 (as of intake from April 1, 2025). Drop-off only — you can't attend the cremation
• Mikasa City, Hokkaido — for small pets under 2kg: ¥5,000 for residents, ¥10,000 for non-residents. The same page also notes that bones may not remain
• Fukushima City — covers dogs, cats, and other small pets. Drop-off: ¥1,000 per animal (no ashes returned), or ¥2,000 per animal plus a ¥500 urn fee (ashes returned)
• Yamagata City — ¥3,000 per animal. Birds, hamsters, and similar are accepted, but ashes can't be returned for these
• Mishima City, Shizuoka — drop off at Mishima Seien. ¥3,000 for residents of Mishima City and Kannami Town, ¥6,000 for everyone else. States outright, "we cannot return small pets' ashes"
• Toyama City — has no pet pickup system at all. Small pets such as small birds, snakes, and mice are, per its guidance, disposed of as "combustible waste"

※All confirmed on each city's official page, July–August 2026.

Toyama City's wording may come as a shock. That's simply how its waste-disposal system classifies things — it's not something you're required to do. Choosing private cremation instead is, of course, always an option.

For the same kind of small pet, one city charges ¥1,000, another ¥10,000, and another has no system at all. You can check your own city's situation on our municipal directory, browsing by prefecture.

What's Different From Dogs and Cats, and What's the Same

Two things covered so far are genuinely different: ashes may not remain, and pricing is sometimes set by species instead of weight.

Other things carry over fine.

• Keeping the body cool — wrap ice packs in a towel and place them at the neck, belly, and rear, same as for dogs and cats. Don't place ice packs directly against the skin. Roughly 1–2 days in summer, 2–3 days in winter. Being smaller, though, they dry out faster, so keep an eye on them
• Choosing a company — whether they disclose an all-inclusive total in writing, have a fixed address, and respond to negative reviews honestly. Same criteria as our choosing a provider page
• Cremation tiers — the communal / individual unattended / witnessed individual breakdown is the same as our types of cremation page

As for notifications: not required. The Rabies Prevention Law's 30-day death-notification requirement applies only to dogs — cats and small pets are both outside its scope.

Three Things to Ask Before You Book

The second question is uncomfortable to ask, but worth asking anyway. Paying for a plan that includes ashes and getting nothing back is the hardest version of this — asking ahead of time softens that disappointment a little.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• On ashes sometimes not surviving cremation:Mikasa City,Yamagata City,Yoshikawa City,Mishima City,Minoh City,Odawara City's official pages (in Japanese, checked July–August 2026).
• Municipal rates:Sapporo City,Mikasa City,Fukushima City,Mishima City,Toyama City's official pages (in Japanese, checked July–August 2026). All 792 cities nationwide plus Tokyo's 23 wards are on our municipal directory.
• Rates from 7 private companies: each company's official site (checked August 12, 2026, in Japanese). Brackets are drawn differently even within the same tier name, so these aren't suited to a direct side-by-side comparison.
• The weight estimates (hamster around 50g, etc.) are commonly cited general figures — individual animals vary.

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