Cat in Minecraft: All 11 Variants and Morning Gifts

Cats are passive mobs that live in villages and swamp huts. Creepers and phantoms are afraid of them, and once tamed they follow you, sleep on your bed and sometimes leave a gift beside it in the morning. Stray cats are skittish and run from you until you win them over with raw fish.

Stat	Value
Health	10 (5 hearts); tamed cats have 20 in Bedrock
Behavior	Passive
Spawns	Villages with enough beds, swamp huts (black cat)
Food	Raw cod, raw salmon
Drops	0-2 string; 1-3 XP

Where cats come from

Villages spawn stray cats as long as there are enough claimed beds. In Java a village needs at least five beds within 48 blocks and fewer than five cats nearby; Bedrock spawns about one cat per four owned beds, up to five. Building beds in a village is a slow way to grow its cat population.

Every swamp hut also generates one black cat alongside the witch, and that cat never despawns. Village black cats only spawn during a full moon.

The 11 variants

Cats come in tabby, tuxedo, red, Siamese, British Shorthair, calico, Persian, ragdoll, white, all black and Jellie. Jellie was a real cat, owned by the YouTuber GoodTimesWithScar, and won a community contest in 2018. A tamed cat’s collar starts red and can be dyed any of the 16 colors.

Creeper and phantom repellent

This is the real reason to keep cats. Creepers keep six blocks away from any cat, even while chasing you, and phantoms keep 16 blocks away. A couple of cats sitting near your base entrance or bedroom makes a real difference on nights you skip sleeping.

The catch: a creeper that has already started its fuse doesn’t flee until you leave its blast range.

Taming in short

You tame a stray cat with raw cod or raw salmon, but the approach matters: they bolt if you move toward them quickly. Our step-by-step cat taming guide covers the approach, sitting commands and breeding.

Life with a tamed cat

Tamed cats follow you and teleport to you if they fall more than 12 blocks behind, unless you’ve told them to sit. They’re immune to fall damage. They also love to sit on chests, beds and lit furnaces, and a chest with a cat on it won’t open. Order the cat to sit and stand again to move it.

When you sleep at night, tamed cats lie on your bed. When you wake, each has a 70% chance of leaving a gift: rabbit’s foot, rabbit hide, string, rotten flesh, feather or raw chicken are equally likely, and a phantom membrane shows up about 3% of the time. Cats told to sit don’t bring gifts.

Stray cats hunt rabbits and baby turtles, so don’t keep them near a turtle beach. In Bedrock, a baby zombie can occasionally ride an untamed cat as a jockey.