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insurance and snakes

dr73

dr73

New member
I lost power to my house for about a week and was worried for my snakes and beardies. I called my insurance company and asked them about getting coverage for my reptiles if the house was to catch fire or if the power was out in the winter and they were to die from being cold. They told me the housing would be covered for the animals but that they never had anyone ask them a WEIRDO question about replacing animals that had died. Now I know pet stores have to have insurance for stuff like that but can normal home owners get it? I dont have alot of snakes but I have alot of time getting them to breeding size. I would hate to have to find adult snakes to replace them if anything bad happened to them. Soooooo......... my question is does anyone have this type of coverage on there animals and if so is it at a reasonable price?
 
That power outage sucked! I had an awful lot of frozen mice go south here when our power was out for five days. I know there is car insurance that can cover some pets--I saw it in an ad ;)
 
I went to this guy's house one time to buy a snake. He has about 800, most;y the $$$ BP morphs. I asked him about home owners insurance, and he said he would never dare admit he had all those snakes or they would drop him immediately!
 
I asked my insurance company (Nationwide) about it because...Well...I've got a lot of money sitting here in reptiles and equipment...But they gave me a big fat "no" on it...However they're willing to cover my husbands gun collection. :rolleyes: They won't consider them even if I got business insurance. :shrugs:
 
Nanci said:
I went to this guy's house one time to buy a snake. He has about 800, most;y the $$$ BP morphs. I asked him about home owners insurance, and he said he would never dare admit he had all those snakes or they would drop him immediately!
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Why would home owners insurance drop him? it will not cover the snakes anyway so why would that matter?
 
Nanci said:
Fire hazard?
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Exactly. With the heat pads or wiring some people do, it's not deemed safe. Some thing to do with codes and stuff.

The best thing to do is NOT tell them you have the reptiles at all. But when you are signing up for your insurance and are listing the value of the contents in your home, add extra for the snakes. Just hope that "if" a fire were to happen in your home it is not caused by any tank or rack. Because when they investigate and find out, they wont pay you a dime for any thing.
 
Fire wasn't the reasoning I got. I was simply told that live animals wouldn't be covered...Not necessarily just reptiles, but any live animal.
 
that power outage did suck. i was worried about the snakes, and checked on them way more than i usually do. thankfully ours came on quickly. but it was really weird because my neighbor was out of power for i think 5 more days than we were.

sorry a little off topic.
 
There was a thread a while back, either here or maybe on Fauna, where a guy was meeting at his house with his insurance agent, who happened to be female. His son, who was 9, wanted to "impress the lady" with his pet corn snake, which was 4-5 foot long at the time. He came out of his bedroom with the snake around his shoulders and the insurance lady screamed and ran out of the house. She then proceeded to cut the guys insurance off "until he got rid of the dangerous animals" he was housing. They would not reinstate his homeowners until an inspection by their agent showed zero snakes in the house. So he had to move/hide his collection, get the inspection and then move everyone back in. It was ridiculous the hoops that guy had to jump through.
 
wow.. thats stupid. thats like saying having a cat or dog would make ur insurance go up. isnt that the entire point of america.. being able to have legal animals with you as long as there are no problems with other people.
 
All I can say, until I talk to hubby, who just got his insurance license, is that if there was a fire at my house, I hope a stranger, even a weird one, would do all they could to help save my snakes.
 
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Susan said:
All I can say, until I talk to hubby, who just got his insurance license, is that if there was a fire at my house, I hope a stranger, even a weird one, would do all they could to help save my snakes.
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Please let me know what he find out.
 
Hypancistrus said:
There was a thread a while back, either here or maybe on Fauna, where a guy was meeting at his house with his insurance agent, who happened to be female. His son, who was 9, wanted to "impress the lady" with his pet corn snake, which was 4-5 foot long at the time. He came out of his bedroom with the snake around his shoulders and the insurance lady screamed and ran out of the house. She then proceeded to cut the guys insurance off "until he got rid of the dangerous animals" he was housing. They would not reinstate his homeowners until an inspection by their agent showed zero snakes in the house. So he had to move/hide his collection, get the inspection and then move everyone back in. It was ridiculous the hoops that guy had to jump through.
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They would be dealing with my attorney. I bet they could't show him exactly in writing in their policies, by-laws, whatever, that they specifically will not cover reptiles of one or any kind. I'd like to see their written policy declaring snakes as dangerous animals. I'll bet it doesn't exist.
 
Essentially you can get insurance on anything. First there must be some one willing to take on the risk and then you must be willing to pay the price. The animals would most likely be considered "contents", as in guns, china, jewelry, etc. It's not so much the insurance company objecting to the housing of snake collections but local animal ordinances that would worry me more. As well as, theft of valuable animals once it is known that the are housed within. I love the warning on Glades Herps website. They say "Don't get out of your car before first alerting the staff because there are dogs loose on the property that need to be put away before you can exit safely!" How cool is that? I'm assuming they have a lot of valuable animals that need a guard team. lol
Sorry you were inconvenienced by the power outage. Just be glad it wasn't the middle of winter. I buy chemical heat packs every year for just such possibility.
Terri
 
Ok, first off, I did NOT read everyone's reply here.

But I have to add that I have asked about insuring our business "PJC Reptiles" and they will NOT cover that animals! I just don't get it. Pet insurance only seems to cover medical on your animals and they said no to my snakes!

Let's start our own reptile insurance company????

We too use the heat packs for shipping, going to shows, vet visits, and if need be, up here in Maine, for keeping the animals warm during power outages. We have them in 6 hour up to 40 hour. We put them in snake bags, pillow cases, and deli cups in foam coolers and insulated shipping boxes until the power is back on. Takes us some time but at least we have not lost one yet. As for someone walking in here and taking snakes, I am hoping that my pit bulls and my rat terrier can scare them off!

Just my two cents.

PJ :wavey:
 
I recommend that you look into livestock insurance, like a farmer would have for cattle. That might be the best bet.
 
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