What temperature is considered cold for indoor cat?

[buddyrhonda]

How cold is too cold for a cat that has always been indoors? I put my cat (Buddy) in another room while I sleep, because I'm unable to sleep if she's in the bedroom. The room isn't heated except for what drifts in during the day from the other rooms. The coldest it's ever been out there is in the 40's.

Any help would be appreciated. 

 

[sivyaleah]

Cats are fairly weather resilient, considering their ancestry of being desert animals.  While 40ish is pretty low, I don't think they would suffer too poorly from that but you might want to consider a heated bed for her, if possible.  At least she'll have a warm spot to cuddle up on if it gets too chilly.  You can get heat packs meant for animals that you put in the microwave for instance; they stay warm for many hours.  

 

[catwoman707]

Right, or a heating pad on low with a blanket ruffled up she can snuggle into. The curled up position with paws tucked under keeps them pretty warm in colder places.

My house is the same way, if the bedroom doors are closed, no heat gets in so I keep the door wide open until bedtime then it lasts most of the night before getting super cold by the am.

 

[buddyrhonda]

Thanks a lot. Buddy has a cat bed that's supposed to radiate the cats heat back to her, but is not run by electric or anything else.  Felt kind of guilty about putting her in a room that even though it's in the 60's when I put her in the room, it's closer to low 40's by morning since the door is closed. I figured surely she can handle the 40' since I feed a couple cats (strays, not my own) and they're always out in the cold. It's already got below zero here (Illinois) 6 or 8 times this winter. A couple of days the HIGH was only below zero. Not used to that!!!!

 

[aprilprey]

You could also try one of those heating lamps used for lizards, etc..she could sleep under it.  I have a cat that loves to sleep on the back of my couch, right under a reading lamp when its on.  All kinds of basking, heating products available in the lizard section of the pet products.

BTW: Kudos for banishing her from the bedroom so you could sleep; we really should try that!  But I fear I'd just have meowing at the door all night.

 

[catwoman707]

It's not a matter of her being able to handle it, as you said strays do in some very cold temps, but the sad part is, it's very hard on them, quite uncomfortable.

Not that yours is, she is still afterall not outside in the freezing cold like strays, but none of them like it, and the colder it is, the harder their life is during the winter months.