Think of your cat when you decide to turn the central heating thermostat down

Couple of Siamese cats need the central heating thermostat turned up in winter! Screenshot.

Just a little reminder that cats love heat. A lot of home and pet owners or renters might want to try and minimise their heating bill by turning down the thermostat as recommended. This will help in the battle against climate change too.

It is good idea in general as you can turn the thermostat down a degree or two and wear some warm clothes to make up the difference. Money saved at a stroke or the turn of a thermostat knob.

But what about the cats? Yes, they have coats to keep themselves warm but the Siamese has a very close-lying single coat. It is not hugely effective in keeping them cosy warm in winter as is the coat of the Siberian for instance.

The Siamese will like the thermostat turned up. As this video shows:

It is a compromise situation. You have to consider the cats when you turn down the heating. Or a least ensure that there is a warm little cubby hole somewhere in the home for them. The space next to the boiler is ideal. Or the 'airing cupboard'. This is the place where the hot water cylinder is located if you don't have a combi boiler. Cats love and need to have access to these places in winter.

An alternative might be a little igloo bed and an electric heating pad underneath! Or is the going too far. I don't think so.

The video is from Mae's TikTok channel: link.

-------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

The reason why domestic cats curl up in a ball when sleeping

Domestic cats don't always do it but they often curl up into a ball when sleeping. There are two basic reasons why they do this.

Safety: when they curl up into a ball, if they are a tabby cat - and the tabby cat coat is the original camouflaged coat - they look like a snake. Snakes are known within the animal kingdom to be dangerous. So curling up into a ball protects the cat. Also it provides good camouflage against their surroundings.

Let's remember that all domestic cats back in the day, thousand years ago, were tabby cats. So curling up to look like a snake was effective in those days and that trait has carried through to today even though many domestic cat are not tabby cats.

Heat retention: there are two elements to this. When a cat curled up into a ball the surface area of the cat compared to their volume becomes more favourable in terms of retaining heat. This is based on the principle that bigger animals can retain heat better than smaller animals because the surface area of bigger animals compared to their body mass or volume is lower than for small animals and therefore there is less opportunity for heat to be lost into the atmosphere. This is a well known physical property.

And secondly, when the cat is curled up two surfaces are pressed together and therefore rather than body heat being lost into the atmosphere the heat passes from one surface to the other and warms up the cat.

RELATED: Picture confirms neighbourhood cats crave warmth.

Conservation of energy: cats sleep for long periods. Adopting a curled up position is helpful in the conservation of energy through minimising muscle usage.

Instinctive behaviour: this is all instinctive behaviour from their wild ancestors.

Spread out: Sometimes they spread out and this will normally happen when the ambient temperature is high and they want to cool off. Alternatively, sometimes when they are on their human caregiver's lap they might spread out because it means the heat from the person's lap has more opportunity to pass upwards into the cat. Once again, it's a way of maximising warmth.

Inherited: This desire to be warm is inherited from the domestic cat's wild cat ancestor which lived and still lives in North Africa and Asia. But in North Africa the temperature is high and the domestic cat has retained the need to live in a high temperature environment. And where they can't they have evolved very dense longhaired coats such as for the Siberian cat. Two other examples are the Norwegian Forest Cat and the Maine Coon to a lesser extent because these coast of America is not quite as cold as Siberia!

RELATED: Awesome Real Siberian Cats in Siberia.

In conclusion, the reason why domestic cat curl up into a ball when sleeping is to retain heat and to maintain security.

-------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Extreme example of engine warmth being attractive to stray cats

Warmth is everything to a stray cat in a cold climate and this picture proves it. The engine heat is clearly funnelling through the gap between the hood and the windscreen forcing the cats to congregate; closely packed together in a line.

Image: Facebook.

The good thing about this is that the car owner can see the cats which is not the case when they are tucked inside the engine compartment. Many stray cats are harmed this way.

Some car owners would be dismayed at this if it was their car as they'd be claiming that the cats scratched the paintwork. Cats rarely do as they are such precise jumpers. They land with a feather light touch most times as the jump is perfectly timed.

This would seem to be a family or extended family as the coats bar one are similar. My guess it is the mother and her subadult offspring.

Do feral cats voluntarily come into people's homes?

Sometimes feral cats do come into people's homes. It depends on the circumstances. One of those circumstances is how feral the cat is. If the cat is hard-wired feral and totally unsocialised, they won't go into a person's home as it would be too frightening. Too many possible dangers lurking in a strange place.

Dorothy and Marvin. Marvin was a semi-feral cat that DW adopted and brought inside. He adapted brilliantly to home life.

But if the cat is somewhat feral and partially domesticated as is the case fairly often and if they are starving which is also pretty common, they'll take risks to get food and take their chances particularly if the home owner is apparently friendly or even calling them over and actively encouraging them to come in.

It is all about the competing feline emotions of fear and hunger. Both are linked to survival. The cat makes a decision on the best strategy in order to survive. Cats are great survivors which is why they have nine lives.

RELATED: Stunning beauty: extreme high grade 9 white spotting adopted feral cat.

Sometimes people confuse stray cats with feral cats. The stray is often domesticated and quite likely to come into people's homes looking for food or even a new caregiver.

Some cats can be quite bold in that respect. The almost ask to be adopted through their body language, vocalisations and behavior.

If the recipient person is in the mood to adopt, they do. There have been some great cat adoptions in this way.

But true ferals just run from the nasty hostile human! Well, not all humans are nasty and hostile but to true feral cats they are. They are an unknown quantity to be avoided.

So, that's the key to the answer to the question in the title. How feral is the feral cat?

Picture of my cat snuggling up to me while I work

My cat looking cute keeping warm between my legs while I work on the website. He loves the warmth. He is very keen, like many domestic cats, on heat.

My cat snuggling up. Photo: MikeB

Note: If you click on the photo, you can see it in large format. It looks much better and it shows how good the Samsung S20 camera is. It is a superb camera.

My cat takes up this position while I work on the website on my computer which is on my lap. On this occasion I removed the computer to allow myself to photograph him. I used a Samsung S20 ultra. You can release the shutter on the camera by saying certain words such as "smile" or "shoot". This is incredibly useful because you can hold the smart phone much more still when you release the shutter. You don't have to fiddle around trying to tap the shutter release button or tap the screen. I love this facility. It allows me to get sharp photographs such as this one under low-like conditions. This looks as if it was well lit but it wasn't. It took place quite early in the morning.

Domestic cats prefer underfloor heating to radiators

I have come to the decision that domestic cats prefer underfloor heating to radiators. To the best of my knowledge, underfloor heating is fairly unusual. I just happened to have it and I love it. Don't think that it is more expensive than conventional heating because it is not. The boiler runs for longer in the morning when it heats up the floor but once it is heated up the boiler is not required to work for the next 22 hours because the floor retains the heat. And it is this retention of heat which helps to maintain a very stable air temperature inside the home even during cold nights in winter. But this is not about me. It's about my cat. 

Domestic cats prefer underfloor heating to radiators. Photo: MikeB.

As you can see in the photograph he loves underfloor heating. It's unusual for a cat to plonk himself down in the middle of a kitchen like this and curl up on the floor because it is a bit too exposed. Cats like to find a quiet place, preferably high up, where they feel secure. This location does not meet that requirement. However, it does meet the requirement of warmth. This floor is warm. It's hard which is not great either for him but despite those downsides he has decided to rest there and but for the fact that I photographed him, which disturbed him, I think he'd be there right now.

I realise that you can't use those radiator hammocks which are quite popular with domestic cats and which are attached to radiators which heat the air in the room. But when the whole ground floor is underfloor heated (except for the hallway) a cat has a lot of choice as to where to put themselves. It opens up some added options for a resting place for a domestic cat.

I would recommend underfloor heating if you are buying a house with it and are uncertain about its functionality. It functions very well. I can vouch for that. And the heating bill is no more than for standard heating using radiators. Further, you have all that extra wall space because radiators take wall space away from a room. The walls are completely sheer in my home. You can put furniture where ever you want to.