As a Minecraft player, you can either be a cat person or a wolf person. If you are not in the latter bunch, this guide is for you. Minecraft’s cats are not only cute but they are useful to keep mobs away, get easy loot, and add life to your Minecraft house. That’s why we are here to teach you how to tame a cat in Minecraft. But that’s not all. We will also go over the steps to find your feline partner, what to feed the cats, and even how to make it spawn in Minecraft. Our guide works on both Minecraft Java and Bedrock edition, and it’s compatible with even the upcoming Minecraft 1.19 update. With that said, let’s find and tame a cat in Minecraft right away!
Tame a Cat in Minecraft (2022)
Cats are one of the many passive mobs in Minecraft that interacts with the player. There are plenty of mechanics based around them in the game. So, we have divided our guide into several sections to help you better understand cats in Minecraft. So use the table below to explore everything about cats in detail:
Where to Find Cats in Minecraft
Within Minecraft, a cat usually spawns after every real-world minute. But that’s only if the location is close to a village and has less than 5 cats. For the location, Minecraft refers to the closest two chunks around the player. Generally, you can find a cat in these locations:
Villages
You can find cats in Minecraft villages if they have at least 5 beds in them. The number of beds required is 4 in the Bedrock edition. These beds must be claimed, i.e. a villager must have slept on them during the last night. Each of the village cats can be of any random color. 25% of such cats can be kittens or baby cats.
Witch Swamp Huts
Every swamp hut in Minecraft spawns with at least one cat. This cat is always black in color, and you can also make more such cats spawn in the hut by placing a grass block around it. However, on the Java edition, such spawning doesn’t happen when there’s already a cat within 16 blocks of the hut.
How to Spawn a Black Cat in Minecraft
There are 11 types of cats in Minecraft, namely tabby, tuxedo, red, siamese, British shorthair, calico, Persian, Jellie, ragdoll, white, and black. Among the 11 cat breeds or skins in Minecraft, the siamese is the rarest cat skin in the game.
Now, out of these, you can manually arrange the situation to make a black cat spawn. Black cats can spawn under two conditions:
- If the spawn area is inside or around 16 blocks horizontal radius of a swamp hut, every spawned cat in that area will be black.
- When a cat spawns during the night, there’s a 50% chance of it being black.
How to Tame a Cat in Minecraft
Taming a cat in Minecraft is similar to taming a wolf. You just have to keep giving it food until a collar appears around its neck. So, follow these steps, and the cat will be yours in no time:
1. First, you need to go to a nearby water body to catch fish. Minecraft cats love to eat raw salmon and raw cod. You can use a fishing rod or jump into the river to manually find and collect food for the cat.
2. Next, you need to slowly approach a stray or untamed cat. You can’t re-tame a cat that’s already tamed by another player.
3. Finally, to tame a cat in Minecraft, you need to feed it raw salmon or raw cod by right-clicking or using the secondary action key on it. The process might take you 3-4 fishes, but you have to keep feeding the cat until hearts appear on top of its head. Then the cat will start following you around, and you will have successfully tamed it.
What Does a Tamed Cat Do
As mentioned earlier, the cat will have a collar around its neck once it’s tamed. You can then make the cat sit using your secondary action key on it. It will remain in that position until you allow it to move. If your cat isn’t in the sitting position, it will randomly explore the area around you. It can climb on top of chests, beds, and even active furnaces.
Do keep in mind that, unlike wolves, cats can’t attack other hostile mobs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to protect them. All cats in Minecraft are immune from fall damage. Moreover, the creeper and the phantom are afraid of cats. So, at times, the cat can even act as your bodyguard.
Gifts for Players
A surprisingly little-known feature of cats in Minecraft is their ability to give gifts to the player. If a player sleeps close to a tamed cat, then the cat might gift it a dropped item on waking up. But this doesn’t work if the cat is ordered to sit or if the player is sleeping during a thunderstorm in the daytime. The cat’s gift to you can be one of the following items:
- Rabbit’s foot
- Rabbit hide
- String
- Rotten Flesh
- Feather
- Raw Chicken
- Phantom Membrane
The chances of receiving a gift from the cat, as per Minecraft Wiki, are close to 70%. But out of the giftable items, the phantom membrane has the lowest chances of spawning.
Find and Tame a Cat in Minecraft Today
Whether you want a new friend in Minecraft or are simply looking for a way to keep the creepers away, cats are here to help. And now that you know how to tame a stray cat in Minecraft, it’s time to make a house for both of you to stay in. You can use these best Minecraft house ideas for inspiration or download readymade houses with these best adventure maps. But if you are someone like me who wants to collect more mobs, the frogs in Minecraft can be a decent choice. They are unique, super dynamic, and can add the vibes of a mangrove swamp to every house build idea. Having said that, which is your favorite pet in Minecraft? I am on Team Cat. Do tell yours in the comments section below!
For the music disc, see Music Disc.
For the similar mob that spawns in jungles, see Ocelot.
SpawnVillages
Swamp huts (only black cats)
Raw Cod
Raw Salmon
A cat is a passive mob found in villages and swamp huts. They can be tamed and used to repel creepers and phantoms.
Spawning[]
Cats can spawn every 1200 ticks (1 minute). A random player is selected (including spectators) and a random location is chosen 8-32 blocks away from the player horizontally in both directions and on the same height. A cat can spawn if that block is less than 2 chunks from a village with fewer than 5 cats, or inside a swamp hut.
Villages[]
Untamed cats spawn in villages as long as there are at least five claimed beds within 48 blocks and at most four cats within a 97×17×97 box centered around the spawn position. Cats that spawn with the creation of a village do not despawn, however any additional cats that spawn within a village may despawn. A village cat spawns with a random appearance, although black cats may spawn only during a full moon.[Java Edition only][verify] The spawning of cats in villages is a separate process from the natural spawning of passive mobs, and thus is not affected by the Creature mob cap.
in Bedrock Edition, a village periodically spawns stray cats to fill a quota of 1 cat per 4 owned beds, up to a maximum of 5 cats for 20 or more owned beds. Only owned beds (those currently claimed by a villager) are counted for this purpose. All cats within the village boundaries are counted, including kittens, cats that wander in from outside, and even tamed cats owned by a player. If the number of cats found is short of the quota, the village tries to spawn one cat or kitten within a volume of 16 × 6 × 16 blocks centered on the village center. (This is the same volume used when a village spawns an iron golem.)
Swamp Hut[]
One untamed black cat generates alongside a witch inside swamp huts upon world generation. This cat never despawns. Additional cats can spawn within the hut similarly to witches. In Java Edition, any other cats to spawn within the witch hut (from spawn eggs and commands without cat type set) always spawn as black. A new cat does not spawn in a hut if there is already a cat within a 16×8×16 block volume.[Java Edition only][verify]
Bedrock Edition[]
25% of cats spawn as kittens. During a full moon, 50% of cats that spawn are black.
Drops[]
Adult cats drop:
Upon successful breeding, 1–7 is dropped.
Like other baby animals, killing a kitten yields no item or experience.
Appearance[]
This page would benefit from the addition of more images.
Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Baby Siamese during 21w11a
From left to right: tabby, tuxedo, red, siamese, British shorthair, calico, Persian, ragdoll, white, and black.
The unused tamed gray tabby texture in Bedrock Edition.[1]
Despite sharing the same model, cats are smaller than ocelots. There are currently 11 skins that cats can have. One of the cat skins was designed after Jellie, the cat of YouTuber GoodTimesWithScar, and was chosen by the community in a Twitter vote.[2] The current skins are:
- Black (black with orange eyes)
- British Shorthair (silver with yellow eyes)
- Calico (orange, white and dark brown with yellow and blue eyes)
- Jellie (gray and white with gray-green eyes)
- Persian (creamy with blue eyes and flat faces)
- Ragdoll (white and soft amber with blue eyes)
- Red (orange and white with green eyes)
- Siamese (white and pale brown with blue eyes)
- Tabby (brown and white with yellow eyes)
- Tuxedo (black and white with green eyes)
- White (white with light blue and yellow eyes)
In the default resource pack, a texture file for a tamed gray tabby exists.[BE only][1] It is however completely unused and cannot be spawned in-game.
Like tamed wolves, tamed cats also have a collar on their necks. The color of the cat's collar is red when tamed and can be changed by using dyes.
Behavior[]
Cats are immune to fall damage, but they still avoid falling off cliffs high enough to normally cause fall damage.
Cats can see players even if they have the Invisibility status effect. With the exception of a faster movement rate, kittens have the same behavior as adults. They hiss at phantoms that are currently pursuing a player.[JE only] Creepers and phantoms avoid cats, even while pursuing a player, keeping a distance of 6 and 16 blocks away respectively from any cats. However, a creeper that has begun its detonation does not flee unless the player leaves its blast radius.
Stray cat[]
A stray cat is an untamed cat. Naturally spawned cats always spawn as stray cats. Unlike untamed wolves, stray cats may despawn naturally. They pursue and attack chickens, rabbits, and baby turtles up to a distance of 15 blocks. Even though they spawn in villages, they don't necessarily remain there; instead, they explore.
They sprint away from any player within 7 blocks (unless the player is sneaking[BE only] or difficulty is set to peaceful[JE only]), and avoid players within 16 blocks. However, they slowly approach a player holding raw cod or salmon within 10 blocks, allowing the player to feed and tame it (see § Taming below). If the player moves, turns too quickly, or stops holding the fish while within 6 blocks, the cat flees and does not attempt to approach the player for a few seconds.
Stray cats can be leashed.
Tamed cat[]
Cats sitting on a lime bed.
Unless commanded to sit (see Taming below), tamed cats do not remain still for long and explore around the player.
A cat not already sitting attempts to get on top of chests, the foot part of beds, or active furnaces at the cat's current Y-level within a 4-block-radius square horizontally, and once on top often assumes a sitting position without a command from the player. A cat also occasionally attempts to sit on these blocks if the blocks are at ground level. A chest with a cat sitting on top of it becomes unusable unless the cat is commanded to stand. Cats that sit on their own can be ordered to stand, or they may get up if the player holds a raw fish nearby. The cat can also be brought down by removing the block or pushing it off. A cat can also be forcibly moved by attacking it. A cat does not sit on a block that is obstructed by another block above it.
Like other mobs, cats enter nearby boats, trapping themselves.
If a player is harmed by a hostile mob or a harming potion, but not by environmental damage, a cat sitting in proximity to the player stands, moves a few blocks from its sitting location, and then resumes sitting.
Gifts[]
When the player sleeps, tamed cats move toward their owner and sleep near them. When the player wakes, their tamed cats also wake. There is a 70% chance for a tamed cat to give the player a gift after they wake up, but only if the player sleeps at night (if the player sleeps during a thunderstorm during the daytime, or if the tamed cat has been ordered to sit, the player receives no gift). The gift is a dropped item from the cat_morning_gift.json loot table:
After a cat gives a gift, both the cat and the gift are located in the general area of the bed the player slept on, including on the other side of walls or floors.
If a player has multiple standing tamed cats in the area, only the tamed cat that sleeps on the player may provide a gift. If all standing tamed cats in the area are prevented from reaching the player (i.e. trapped in minecarts or boats), each cat has a 70% chance of providing a gift, although only one of the cats drops a gift.
Teleportation[]
Tamed cats teleport to the player if they are more than 12 blocks from the player, except where listed below. It is possible for a tamed cat to teleport to an inaccessible location (e.g. under ice) and be injured or suffocate of various causes as a result.
A cat does not teleport:
- If the cat has been ordered to sit.
- Exception: The cat is likely to teleport if it is injured while sitting (it does not sit after it teleports). A dramatic example is if a cat sitting outside is struck by lightning, in which case the cat materializes on fire. This kills the cat.
- Exception: If a kitten is told to sit, and grows up while the chunk it is sitting in is still loaded, it teleports to the player and materializes still sitting.
- If the cat is attempting to sit on a chest, bed, or furnace. [Bedrock Edition only]
- If the cat is attempting to lay or is laying on a bed.
- If the cat is in a minecart or boat.
- If the cat has been attached to a fence post with a lead.
- If the cat is in an unloaded chunk.
- If none of the blocks on the edge of a 5×5×1 region centered on the player are transparent blocks with an opaque block below and another transparent block above.
- If the player is in another dimension.
- If the player is in water: The cat teleports to the player when the player leaves the water.
- If the cat is in water: teleportation is unreliable. It may or may not occur.
Cat teleportation is completely silent; this is intentional.[3]
Taming[]
A sitting tamed black cat.
Stray cats can be tamed using raw cod or raw salmon (see #Behavior for how to approach a cat). Once tamed, cats follow the player who tamed them. They do not despawn, no longer fear the player and purr or meow frequently. Like wolves, and with the same limits, they can teleport to a player who moves 12 blocks away.
The player can order a cat to sit/stand by pressing use on it. If the player is holding a raw cod or salmon when commanding a cat to sit or stand, the fish is given to the cat instead, causing it to enter love mode. Once in love mode, the player can command a cat to sit or stand while holding a fish. Cats also sit on certain things of their own accord (see below).
Breeding[]
Two cats with a newly bred kitten.
When tamed cats are fed an raw cod or salmon, they enter love mode. Breeding creates a kitten, and the parents cannot breed again for 5 minutes. The kitten has the coloring of and belongs to the owner of one of the parents.
Two sitting cats are unable to breed, but a mobile cat can breed with a sitting cat, in which case the mobile cat's owner also owns the kitten. The growth of kittens can be slowly accelerated using raw cod or salmon. Each fish reduces the growth time remaining by 10%.
Healing[]
Feeding an injured tamed cat an uncooked cod or salmon restores its health by 2. Unlike tamed wolves, a tamed cat's tail is not an indicator of its health.
Sounds[]
Data values[]
ID[]
Java Edition:
| Cat | cat | entity.minecraft.cat |
Bedrock Edition:
| Cat | cat | 75 | entity.cat.name |
Entity data[]
Cats have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.
Java Edition:
Main article: Entity format
- Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can be tamed by players
- Additional fields for mobs that can breed
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- CollarColor: The color of the cat's collar. Present even for stray cats (but does not render); default value is 14.
- variant: The resource location of the variant of the cat.
[edit]
[edit]
Bedrock Edition:
See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.Advancement criteria[]
| Black | textures/entity/cat/all_black.png |
| British Shorthair | textures/entity/cat/british_shorthair.png |
| Calico | textures/entity/cat/calico.png |
| Jellie | textures/entity/cat/jellie.png |
| Persian | textures/entity/cat/persian.png |
| Ragdoll | textures/entity/cat/ragdoll.png |
| Red | textures/entity/cat/red.png |
| Siamese | textures/entity/cat/siamese.png |
| Tabby | textures/entity/cat/tabby.png |
| Tuxedo | textures/entity/cat/black.png |
| White | textures/entity/cat/white.png |
Achievements[]
| Where Have You Been? | Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning. | The gift must be picked up from the ground. | 20G | Bronze | ||
| Plethora of Cats | Befriend twenty stray cats. | Befriend and tame twenty stray cats found in villages. They do not all need to be tamed in a single world. | 20G | Silver |
Advancements[]
| The Parrots and the Bats | Breed two animals together | Husbandry | Breed a pair of any of these 23 mobs: A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement. | husbandry/breed_an_animal | |
| Best Friends Forever | Tame an animal | Husbandry | Tame one of these tameable mobs:
| husbandry/tame_an_animal | |
| Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 22 mobs: A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement. | husbandry/bred_all_animals | |
| A Complete Catalogue | Tame all cat variants! | Best Friends Forever | Tame each of these 11 cat variants: Other cat variants, if any, can be tamed, but are ignored for this advancement. | husbandry/complete_catalogue |
History[]
This section would benefit from the addition of isometric renders.
Please remove this notice once you've added suitable isometric renders to the article.
The specific instructions are: Tuxedo kitten during 18w43a (including its tamed kitten), persian cat in 19w41a (see MC-163227) and cats and ocelots in 20w45a (see MC-203644)
This page would benefit from the addition of more sounds.
Please remove this notice once you've added suitable sounds to the article.
The specific instructions are: Cat hiss1.ogg and hiss3.ogg before and after the fix of MC-114000.
| Taming ocelots into cats is now easier. |
| Cats can now be commanded to sit by pressing the use item control.[4] |
| Cats have now become immune to fall damage. |
| Cats now frighten creepers. |
| Tamed cats now sit when right clicked with empty hand. |
| Cats now have sounds. |
| Cats now try to jump on a bed if one is present. |
| Jeb has now made cats "more realistic... probably more annoying".[5] They now sit on beds and also active furnaces and chests. |
| Kittens now sometimes despawn upon becoming adults. This can be prevented by feeding them a fish once they are an adult. |
| Baby cat growth can now be accelerated using raw cod. |
| Cats named using a name tag now display death messages to the owner. |
| All cats – even unnamed cats – now display death messages to their owner. |
| A cat spawn egg has been added, which spawn ocelots with cat textures. |
| The cat spawn egg has been removed. |
| The entity ID of cats and ocelots has been changed from Ozelot to ocelot. |
| Stray cats are announced at MINECON Earth 2018. |
| Added stray cats. |
| Cats have been split from ocelots into their own mob. |
| Cats are now tamed from stray cats rather than ocelots. |
| Cats now drop 0-2 string upon death. |
| Cats now scare off phantoms, sleep with players and give them gifts when waking up. |
| Reimplemented the spawn egg. |
| A vote for the ninth cat has now concluded and the texture has been revealed. |
| Cats can now spawn in villages. |
| Cats can naturally spawn in villages, in addition to during world generation. |
| Persian cats now have a black nose due to MC-163227. |
| Persian cats no longer have a black nose. |
| "Jellie" cats now spawn naturally in villages. |
| Cats now have three legs.[6] |
| Cats no longer have three legs. |
| The CatType field in entity data is replaced by variant with resource locations. |
| Added a tame button for ocelots, so they can now be tamed into cats. |
| Added stray cats. |
| Cats have been split from ocelots into their own mob. |
| Cats are now tamed from stray cats rather than ocelots. |
| Cats now scare off phantoms. |
| Cats now sleep with players and give them gifts when waking up. |
| Cats are now healed when fed raw cod and raw salmon. |
| Cats can now spawn in player created registered villages. |
| Population of cats is 1 for every 4 valid beds, which is capped at 10 cats per village. |
| Added a sound for hitting ocelots and cats. |
| Baby ocelots and cats can now be spawned by using |
| Baby cat growth can now be accelerated using raw cod. Other fish may or may not be effective. |
| Added cats as a separate mob from ocelots |
| Cats now spawn in villages and can be tamed with fish. |
| Cats scare off phantoms, sleep with players and give them gifts. |
| Cats are now healed when fed raw cod and raw salmon. |
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Cat" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- The tuxedo cat is based on Jeb's pet cat, Newton,[7] who died in 2014.[8]
- The Jellie cat is based on GoodTimesWithScar's cat, Jellie.
- In MINECON Earth 2018, Jeb announced that the community could vote for a 9th cat skin to be added with the rest of the other 8 cat skins. As a result, GoodTimesWithScar’s cat Jellie won the contest and was added in Village and Pillage, making the second mob variation that was suggested by the community, the first being "Toast", a rabbit skin.
- Both calico and white cat appear to have heterochromia.
- The calico cat skin's fur pattern resembles that of Winslow, from Minecraft: Story Mode, with the only differences being the eye color and the mirrored fur pattern. The episode in which the cat appears was released two years before calico cats were added into the game.
- In real life, cats have been known for their ability to flip upright during a fall, particularly larger ones; though they still might be injured by landing. This fact is reflected in Minecraft because they are not damaged by falls.
- The current Siamese cat texture is unused in Bedrock Edition.
- In real life, calico cats are almost always female and the few male calicos that do occur are generally sterile. However, since animals in Minecraft are genderless, it's not odd to breed two calico cats with each other.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Screenshot demonstrating the size difference between a cat and a kitten.
An image tweeted by mpt at making of his attempt at making a cat laying down animation.
The three original types of cats.
Minecraft tuxedo cat next to :NewCat's tuxedo cat.
Bedrock Edition 1.8.0.8]]. File:CatastrophicPandaBe.
A list of cats, excluding Jellie and Tuxedo.
Cats spawn in the on witch h.
Cat with a rpet. Fi sitting on the carpet.
A black cat lying on a bed.
Three cats trying to sit on one chest while ignoring others close by.
In other media[]
Cats in promotional artwork for ile:Caves & Cliffs cove.
A Cat in promotional artwork for the first File:LEGO Cat.png update.
Renders[]
Main article: Cat/renders
References[]
Entities