What cats are in Minecraft
Cats are passive, tameable mobs that follow you around, sit where you tell them, and keep two of the game’s most annoying threats away from your base. A tamed cat scares off creepers and phantoms, so a home with a few cats wandering the floor is much harder for a creeper to sneak up on.
You tame cats from stray cats that spawn in villages, or from the black cat that lives in a swamp hut. Once tamed, a cat wears a red collar you can dye any color, teleports to you when you travel, and sometimes leaves you a gift after you sleep.
Cats are not ocelots. Ocelots look similar and live in the jungle, but you can’t tame them anymore. You can only gain their trust with fish. This guide is about cats: the ones you can name, breed, and keep.
Where to find cats
There are two sources of wild cats, and they behave a little differently.
Stray cats in villages
Most cats come from villages. A village spawns stray cats based on how many beds it has and whether at least one villager lives there. The game allows roughly one cat per four valid beds, up to a cap of ten cats per village. They wander the paths and rooftops, usually at night, and they keep their distance until you tame them.
Village strays roll one of ten random textures, so a single village can hand you a tabby, tuxedo, red, Siamese, British shorthair, calico, persian, ragdoll, white, or jellie cat.
The black cat in swamp huts
The eleventh texture, the all-black cat, is special. A black cat spawns inside every swamp hut next to the witch. If you want a black cat, a swamp hut is the reliable place to get one. Deal with the witch first so you can tame the cat in peace.
How to tame a cat
Taming a cat takes raw cod or raw salmon, and a bit of patience.
- Bring a stack of raw cod or raw salmon. You may need several pieces per cat.
- Approach slowly. Cats bolt if you sprint or get too close too fast, so walk and let the cat settle.
- Hold the fish and feed the cat. Stand still, look at the cat, and use the fish on it to give it one piece.
- Repeat until hearts appear. Each fish has a chance to tame the cat. When it works, hearts pop above its head and it puts on a red collar.
A tamed cat is yours. It follows you, teleports to you when you wander off, and listens when you tell it to sit.
The 11 cat textures
Every cat in the game uses one of eleven textures. Ten of them appear on village strays at random, and the eleventh, the solid black cat, only comes from swamp huts. Here’s the full set:
- Tabby, the default brown striped cat
- Tuxedo, black with a white chest and paws
- Red, a ginger cat
- Siamese, cream with darker points
- British shorthair, gray and white
- Calico, patched orange, black, and white
- Persian, fluffy and pale
- Ragdoll, light colored with darker ears and tail
- White, solid white
- Jellie, a gray and white cat with a distinctive coat
- Black, the solid black swamp-hut cat
A cat’s texture is set when it spawns and never changes, so the only way to “pick” a look is to find a stray that already has it or breed toward it.
What cats do
They scare creepers and phantoms
This is the reason most players keep cats. Creepers actively avoid cats. A creeper won’t come within six blocks of one and won’t detonate near it, so a cat patrolling your base works like a creeper alarm. Phantoms avoid cats too, which helps if you’ve gone a few nights without sleeping and the sky is full of them.
They bring you gifts
Sleep through the night with a tamed cat sitting nearby, and there’s a good chance it drops a present on the floor when you wake up. Gifts include string, a feather, raw chicken, rotten flesh, rabbit hide, a rabbit’s foot, or a phantom membrane. The rabbit’s foot is the prize here, since it’s hard to farm any other way and it’s used to brew Potions of Leaping.
They sit where you put them
Interact with a tamed cat to make it sit, and again to make it stand. A sitting cat stays put even when you travel far away, which is how you keep one at home instead of dragging it into a cave. Cats also like to sit on their own on beds, chests, and furnaces, and a cat parked on a chest can block you from opening it until you move the cat or make it stand.
Breeding cats and kittens
Once you have two tamed cats, you can breed them. Feed each one raw cod or raw salmon while they’re near each other, hearts appear, and a kitten is born. There’s a short cooldown before you can breed the same pair again.
The kitten takes the texture of one of its parents at random, so pairing two specific cats is how you aim for a particular look. Kittens grow into adults over time, and you can speed that up by feeding them raw fish. Cats won’t breed unless both are tamed and standing, so make sure neither one is set to sit.
Collars, names, and keeping cats safe
Every tamed cat wears a red collar by default. Use any of the 16 dyes on the cat to change the collar color, which is handy for telling your cats apart. A name tag will name a cat permanently, and naming it also stops it from despawning, though tamed cats already stay loaded with the world.
Cats have 10 health, which is five hearts, so they’re fragile. They’ll wander into lava, off cliffs, and toward hostile mobs if you let them roam, so set yours to sit before a fight. One quirk worth knowing: cats hunt rabbits, baby turtles, and chickens on their own, so a cat loose near your chicken coop or a turtle beach can ruin your day.
Java and Bedrock differences
Cats work almost the same on both versions, with a few small gaps. Village cat spawning is tied to beds and villagers on both, but the exact counts and timing can vary between Java and Bedrock. The gift mechanic, the creeper avoidance, and taming with raw fish all behave the same way across versions, so nothing about the core cat experience changes depending on what you play.
Tips and common mistakes
A few things trip players up with cats:
- Don’t sprint at a wild cat. They spook easily and run, and a spooked cat is hard to corner. Walk up slowly with fish in hand.
- Don’t try cooked fish. Only raw cod and raw salmon tame and breed cats, so cooking the fish wastes it.
- Set cats to sit before you leave for a fight or a mining trip. A standing cat teleports after you and walks straight into danger.
- Keep cats away from your animal farms. They’ll stalk and kill chickens, baby turtles, and rabbits without any input from you.
- If a creeper still reaches you, check that your cat is close enough. The creeper only backs off within a few blocks of the cat, so one cat can’t guard a whole base on its own.
Frequently asked questions
What do you feed cats to tame them?
Raw cod or raw salmon. Cooked fish, other foods, and tropical fish won’t work for taming. Keep a stack of raw cod on hand and feed one piece at a time until hearts appear.
How do you get a black cat?
Black cats only spawn in swamp huts, one per hut, next to the witch. Village strays never roll the all-black texture, so a swamp hut is the only reliable source.
Do cats really scare creepers?
Yes. Creepers keep at least six blocks away from cats and won’t explode near them. A few cats around your base make it much harder for a creeper to sneak up while you build.
How do you make a cat follow you?
Tame it, then make sure it’s standing rather than sitting. A standing cat follows you and teleports to you when you get too far away. Interact with it to toggle between sitting and standing.
Can you breed cats with ocelots?
No. Cats and ocelots are separate mobs. You can’t tame ocelots at all, only build trust with them, and they can’t breed with cats.
Why does my cat keep sitting on my chest?
Cats like to claim beds, chests, and furnaces as seats. If a cat is sitting on a chest, you can’t open it until you move the cat or get it to stand up. Place chests where your cats can’t reach them if it keeps happening.
Do cats take fall damage?
Cats avoid fall damage the way ocelots do, so a drop that would hurt you usually won’t hurt them. They can still die to lava, drowning, and mobs, so don’t assume a roaming cat is safe.
Should you keep cats around?
If creepers keep wrecking your builds, a couple of cats are worth more than another wall. Grab a stack of raw cod, tame a stray from the nearest village, and put a black cat from a swamp hut on your wishlist for the collection. The morning gifts and the occasional rabbit’s foot are a nice bonus on top of the creeper insurance.