Can cats see infrared light

Answer 1

I've always had cats and played various games with them. Call it a gut feel, but I am certain that cats can see the infrared spectrum. They always find the warm spot to sit on, they are drawn to warmth across a room before they can feel the heat. I've played games with a hair dryer, and cats almost freak out or will actively play with the stream of hot air. I believe that the rods in cats eyes are different than other mammals and that their rods see a much wider spectrum of light than most all other mammals.

Here's some anectodal evidence. I adopted a stray cat that had spent the Winter outside. He was well on the way to becoming feral. For the first few days after he first came into my home, he was literally "nervous as a cat", reacting to any noise or movement. I noticed an unusual behavior. He'd be looking at me, but when I pushed a button on the TV remote control, he immediately looked directly at the remote and then back at me. He might have been reacting to the movement of my finger on the remote, so I blocked his view of everything but the very front of the remote. He still reacted to the remote, so he had to be seeing the infrared signal from the remote. After two or three days, he decided the remote was not a threat and completely ignored the infrared signal thereafter.