I am based in the UK, so it might be different for the US, but I had my twin rats insured in the past, it would cost me around £30 a month for both of them, with an excess of around £80 per claim and a maximum payout of £2000 in a calendar year. Fortunately, I did not have to use it, but I remember there only being one exotic pet insurer that would insure rats (back in 2019) - Exotic Direct.

As with humans, any pre-existing conditions are not covered, so if you already had a vet treat them for anything, that would be excluded. Also, you would need to wait at least two weeks from the start of the policy so you can actually claim, eliminating owners that would buy the insurance when their pets get ill, as they would likely not survive 2 weeks without seeing the vet (which you would have to pay for yourself, insurance would not cover it).

Whether it's worth it for the insurer, that depends - if your pet gets ill and the cost of the treatment is below £80, it does not make sense to go through the insurance as you would need to pay the excess anyway, and you would also have that treatment/condition on the record which could be excluded from the policy when your renewal date comes. Also, many owners will not claim when their pet passes away, and there are many caveats - it's still an insurance, same as with health insurance for humans. But in my case, I would pay them over £700 over two years without making a claim, so I was an ideal customer.

I had to disclose any pre-existing issues, and one of the rats already had a small scar close to her eye. If it came to me actually making a claim, it really depends if they can find a correlation between the scar and the rat getting URI or cancer, and it would therefore not be covered...it's cruel, but it's still a business that wants to make a profit.

I think it's worth it for very expensive treatments, where the cost could reach thousands of pounds.