Six adaptations. The second one matters more than any blanket you add, and it costs nothing.
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An animal gets cold through the floor long before it gets cold through the air. These six adaptations tackle the problem in the right order, and five of them require no purchase at all.
A lying animal loses heat by conduction into whatever surface it is resting on. A tiled floor at 18°C cools it faster than air at 15°C.
That is why the first adaptation is never to cover it up: it is to insulate from underneath.
A few centimetres between the bed and the floor create a layer of air that breaks the conduction. A pallet, a thick rug, a bed on legs: the effect is the same, and it is immediate.
It is the most effective adaptation on the list, and it costs nothing. Throwing a blanket over a bed that sits straight on the tiles tackles the problem from the wrong side.
Cold air sinks and travels along the floor: a bed under a window or beside a door sits in a constant draught that nobody notices at standing height.
The test is done on all fours, hand flat on the floor, for a few seconds. It looks ridiculous, and it tells you a lot.
An old, thin, short-coated, small or convalescent animal loses heat far faster. A 4 kg chihuahua and a 40 kg shepherd do not have the same needs in the same room.
For those, a bed with raised sides — which limits heat loss around the edges — makes a real difference, provided the rim stays low enough to step over.
A blanket laid over an animal resting on a cold surface does little: the main heat loss is still underneath. Folded so that one thickness passes beneath it, the same blanket becomes useful.
Many animals do that folding themselves. Letting them get on with it, rather than smoothing the blanket flat again every morning, is the right instinct.
No unthermostatted direct heat source within reach: a hot water bottle that is too hot, a heat pad with no cut-out, a fan heater pointed at the bed. An old animal, or one that moves poorly, does not always get away in time.
Any extra heat must always leave a cooler area within reach, so that the animal can choose. It is the same rule as for the heat mats meant for cats.