What the gram weight means.
An absorbent care pad’s gram weight tells you how much liquid it can hold before it stops being useful. The number on the spec sheet is laboratory-tested under specific conditions; in practice, the pad is asked to do more — because the carrier is tilted, the cooler door opens, the family pauses mid-transfer. Buy for the worst-case scenario, not the test conditions.
A workable stock rule by companion size.
- Small companion (up to ~8 kg): a single small pad is enough for the receiving & transfer stage.
- Medium companion (8–25 kg): one medium pad, plus one spare folded in the case record folder pocket.
- Large companion (25–45 kg): one large pad as the carrier base, plus one medium pad folded over the remains before closure.
- Companion over 45 kg or specific breeds: contact the supplier for a non-standard pad cut. Most reference pads do not cover the largest sizes.
The leak failure mode no spec sheet warns you about.
The single most common absorbent failure in the field is not the pad oversaturating. It is the pad sliding across the carrier floor when the carrier is tilted. Two design details matter: a back-coating that grips the carrier’s internal surface, and a pad size slightly larger than the carrier’s base so it tucks up the sides.
Reverse the pad on the carrier. If it slides with a small flick, the spec is wrong for your service, even if the gram weight is correct.
A 4-week reorder plan.
Track usage weekly by companion size band. After four weeks you will know the proportions of small, medium and large. Order for the mix you actually use. Most services overspend on large pads in the first month and then never reorder them.
Closing position.
The absorbent care pad is a small product in the catalogue and a large effect on the family’s first impression of the service. Don’t over-buy the largest size, and don’t under-spec the medium.
Products a pad sizing decision connects to.
Pads, transfer packs and the bag systems they protect.
The absorbent care pad as part of the receiving & transfer kit.
Open the receiving & transfer solution page for the per-product detail.
Open the kit page →