These guides cover dogs, cats, small animals and exotic pets, breed by breed and species by species. Each one explains common health conditions, care needs, typical vet treatment patterns, and the points that matter when comparing pet insurance. Written in plain English with no policy recommendations, they are designed to help you understand policy wording and what cover may or may not include for your specific animal.
Whether you are choosing a new pet, rehoming, or already own one and want to better understand your insurance options, these guides are designed as a useful research starting point before reading any policy documents carefully.
Covering hundreds of breeds and species across four categories — with more added regularly. Choose your pet type to find breed-by-breed health information, common conditions and insurance points to consider.
Breed-by-breed information on common conditions, vet treatment patterns, activity levels and insurance points to check.
Guides for pedigree and mixed-breed cats, including inherited conditions, indoor and outdoor risks and age-related cover.
Species-led guides for reptiles, birds and unusual pets, covering common health risks, habitat needs and the cover gaps owners often miss.
Helpful guides for rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and other small pets, including routine care and species-specific risks.
Common questions about using these guides.
Breed and species affect the health conditions your pet is statistically more likely to develop, how often they are likely to need vet treatment, and the kinds of conditions insurers may treat as pre-existing or breed-related exclusions. Understanding your breed's common health profile before you compare policies means you know what to look for and what questions to ask.
The aim is a detailed individual page for every recognised breed and species covered across the four categories — dogs, cats, exotic pets and small animals. Guides are added and expanded on an ongoing basis. If your breed or species does not yet have its own page, the parent category guide will cover the most relevant shared health and insurance points.
No. These guides are general information and educational content. They do not recommend any policy or tell you which product to buy. Always read the policy documents for any product you are considering, check the exclusions, excesses and vet fee limits, and consider your own pet's circumstances before making a decision.
Read the policy documents carefully and check the exclusions, annual or lifetime vet fee limits, excess structure, pre-existing condition rules, and renewal terms. Use the insurance points section on your breed's guide page to understand which of those areas are most relevant for your specific animal.
If your pet is a recognised crossbreed, check both parent breed pages for inherited health tendencies. For unknown-mix rescues, use the broader species category guides. Many of the health and insurance points — particularly around pre-existing conditions, dental care and ongoing conditions — apply across breeds regardless of parentage.
Yes. Where breed-specific health information differs by life stage — for example, conditions more common in puppies, or age-related conditions that tend to appear in older animals — this is noted in the individual breed guide. Insurance considerations also vary by age, particularly around lifetime versus annual cover, so the guides note where this is relevant.
Pre-existing conditions are one of the most important things to understand before buying pet insurance. If a condition is common in your breed, an insurer may treat a related diagnosis as pre-existing even if your pet has not been formally diagnosed. The breed guides highlight which conditions are most common so you can ask the right questions when reviewing a policy's pre-existing condition terms.
A breed health risk means a condition is statistically more common in that breed. A policy exclusion means a specific insurer will not pay claims for that condition under the terms of that policy. The two often overlap but are not the same thing. These guides cover breed health risks. Whether a specific condition is excluded under a specific policy depends on the policy wording, which is available directly from the insurer.
Guides are reviewed when new breed health data, veterinary guidance or significant changes in cover patterns become available. The date of last review is noted on individual breed and species pages where available.
Yes, that is one of the primary uses. You can use the guides to compare health profiles, care needs, activity levels and typical vet treatment patterns across breeds before you make a decision. This is useful both for understanding day-to-day ownership and for anticipating what pet insurance for that breed is likely to cover and cost.