Question on insurance....for our collections

So after reading about another fire in a home and loosing the entire collection I came up with some questions

1. Does home owners/renters insurance cover our snake collections?

2. My friend has insurance on her dogs and horses, would we have to do this if #1 is a no? It seems like a huge deal and way expensive! cause my friend has seperate policies on each dog and horse...

3. If #1 is a yes, How do we prove what we had/have in our collection? Pictures? Reciepts? Current market value?

So I am very confused....or are we out of luck?

Id be VERY interested to see some answers to these questions too :)

Boy, that would sure be a good idea. I mean, I have more money into my snakes, than I do any jewelry that's laying around. And they account for that stuff, so why not your collection? Or would they freak out because we have so many snakes? I know some insurance company's won't provide home owners if you own certain breeds of dogs, they have a list. Maybe someone on this forum works for insurance company could chime in.

I don't know if you can insure your snakes, but I do know that telling the insurance company you have snakes can make your liability coverage increase or disappear altogether! It's so stupid, but they seem to think that anybody who visits you in your house is going to get bit and sue you. I actually just found this "fine Print" from an insurance company:
"Liability is excluded for the following animals:

Pit Bull Terriers, Doberman Pinschers, Rotweillers, Staffordshire Terriers, German Shepherds, Chows, Bull Mastiffs, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes. Wolf-Dog Hybrids, Great Danes, St Bernards, Aikita, Rhodesian Ridgebacks

Any animal with prior biting history and any cross of the above.

Any exotic pet including but not limited to a lion, tiger or alligator."

My insurance currently does not cover my snakes, but it does cover my cages/thermostats/things like that up to $20,000 but that covers everything in my apartment (I have $10,000 in computer equipment alone so you do the math on that one)


All I have to do is have everything documented (purchase price/date, photos of items)

I have multiple digital copies of this documentation (on my computer, on my parents computer, and on the cloud)

I also have a hard copy in my firesafe

I actually called my insurance company a month or so ago and asked if I could take out a separate policy for my animals...they seemed like they had never heard of that before...

So this might be a new buisness idea?? LOL

I spoke with an agent about acquiring insurance, and they seemed to feel that it was entirely possible for me to have my animals insured. The precedent is in the livestock industry.

I'm sure that if you are breeding as a registered business you can get insurance coverage for your snakes that way.

So does anybody currently have insurance on their collections?

I would love to find an insurance company to offer something along these lines for our snakes.

http://www.hartfordlivestock.com/liv...nimalmort.html

We had our animals and facility covered with Traveler's Insurance. Snakes were specifically covered under the policy. 6 months after our fire, we are still waiting to collect, but I think it will work out in the end.

So you can try contacting Traveler's...

This is something I've been wanting to look into as well, especially as I begin adding more to my collection and increasing its value. :D

I found this....

http://www.firemansfundpersonal.com/...ions-valuables

Not sure if they would insure live animals as a collection, but it might be worth speaking with an agent about it.

My home insurance covers my equipment 100% regardless how the damage happens.

How ever my snakes are only covered up to 70% of the market value their at upon death but not what i paid into them. Which could work in my favor on larger breeding females but not always for the babies.

Im paying monthly 220 that covers the snakes and the rest of the house. Though if anything were to happen that killed everything off. Id not use the money to restart the collection but rather move on and be done.

My equipment is covered

Animals I was not able to insure

Read last months issue of REPTILES magazine. Great article about insurance and how to basically get it

I also have looked into it through my home owners insurance, my company will not cover "pets". And had no option to allow me to add my "pets" to the policy.

My current policy does however cover all caging and anything except the actual animals.

Another place to talk to is Tropical Hut in Portland OR on Division stree, really amazing pet store, and they breed most of their own animals, rather than get them form other breeders (beardeds, balls, dart frogs, etc)... excellent staff.. but while there they said they have insurance on all their animals. Not sure if it is something specifically business related or not, but if you're interested, PM me and I can send their contact info (or google them) for you to get ahold of them and ask how they insure their snakes.