Cat

Overview

A tamed Cat is the cheapest creeper-proofing in Minecraft. Creepers and phantoms actively flee from cats, so one parked in a base keeps explosions off your walls and dive-bombs off your roof without a single block of redstone or a torch being placed. It costs raw cod or raw salmon and patience: approach slowly, offer fish repeatedly, and hearts eventually appear. Once tamed it follows you, teleports to you when you move far away, sits where told, and wears a dyeable collar. It has only 10 health, so it is a deterrent rather than a bodyguard — a Cat will not win a fight with anything. The second reason to keep one is the morning gift. A tamed Cat that sleeps on your bed sometimes leaves an item on the floor when you wake: string, a feather, a raw chicken, a rotten flesh, a rabbit foot or a phantom membrane, the last two being genuinely hard to get otherwise. Eleven colour variants exist. Ten come from village spawns at a rate of roughly one Cat per four beds, and the eleventh, the black tuxedo cat, generates at every swamp hut without exception. Do not confuse this with the Ocelot, which has not been tameable since 1.14.

Creeper and phantom deterrence, plus morning gifts. A Cat within range of your base makes both mobs keep their distance, and one sleeping on your bed occasionally leaves a rabbit foot or a phantom membrane.

Tame a cat with raw cod or salmon and it will follow you, teleport to you, and sit where told. Its real value is defensive: creepers and phantoms actively flee from cats, so a cat parked near your base stops creeper damage at the door. A tamed cat sleeping on your bed leaves a morning gift on the floor, anything from string to a rabbit foot. Eleven colour variants exist.

In Minecraft, Cat is classified as a tameable mob. It has 10 health points, or 5 hearts. Expect 3 experience per kill.

Properties

Cat has 10 health, which is 5 hearts. It drops up to 3 experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.6 blocks wide and 0.7 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.

Added in: 1.14
Tameable: Yes
Breedable: Yes

Spawns in

Spawns in villages at a rate of roughly one per four beds, and always one black cat at every swamp hut.

It does not appear in open terrain: every Cat comes from Village and Swamp Hut (Witch Hut).

Dimension: Overworld
Only in: Village, Swamp Hut (Witch Hut)
Biomes: Swamp
Added in: 1.14

Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.14

Swamp

Drops

Killing Cat drops String, plus up to 3 experience. Looting raises the maximum on most of these by one per level.

String: 0–2

How it behaves

The Cat can be tamed, after which it follows and defends you. A tamed one still takes damage, so it is worth naming so it never despawns.

Killed by a player it drops up to 3 experience; killed any other way it drops none.

Command

In a world with cheats on, this spawns one Cat where you are standing.

Summon

/summon minecraft:cat ~ ~ ~

Guides and tools that cover this

Frequently asked questions

How do you tame a Cat?

Feed it raw cod or raw salmon repeatedly while standing still. Hearts appear when it is tamed; sprinting at it resets the attempt.

Do cats scare creepers?

Yes. Creepers and phantoms both actively flee from cats, which makes one the simplest creeper defence in the game.

How many cat variants are there?

Eleven. Ten spawn in villages and the black tuxedo cat always generates at swamp huts.

What do cats drop?

0 to 2 string when killed, but the useful output is the gift a tamed Cat leaves after sleeping on your bed.

How much health does the Cat have in Minecraft?

The Cat has 10 health points, which is 5 hearts.

What does the Cat drop?

It drops String, plus 3 experience when killed by a player.

Where does the Cat spawn?