How to Tame a Cat in Minecraft (2026 Guide)

Where to find cats in Minecraft

• Villages — stray cats spawn where there is at least 1 villager and 4 valid beds, up to roughly 1 cat per 4 beds, capped at 10 per village.
• Swamp huts — a single black cat spawns at every witch hut and respawns if it despawns, making huts the reliable source for black cats.
• Cats spawn on grass, sand, stone and most solid surfaces at light level 7 or higher, so lit village paths are prime spots.
• Cats do not spawn in the Nether or the End, and they will not spawn on carpets or leaves.
• If your village has no cats, add beds and make sure villagers are alive, then leave and return so the spawn cycle runs.

Locating a village or a swamp hut on your world is the slow part. Our structure finder and biome finder narrow the search on your seed so you are not sailing blind, and the best Minecraft seeds guide lists worlds that start near villages.

What cats eat: the only taming food

• Raw cod — the most common taming food, dropped by cod and caught while fishing.
• Raw salmon — works identically and is often easier to farm in cold ocean biomes.
• Cooked fish does not work for taming or breeding. Cats only accept raw cod and raw salmon.
• Cats will not eat meat, bread, or any other item. Feeding the wrong item does nothing.
• Bring 8 to 12 raw fish per cat. Taming is random per feed, so a few attempts is normal.

How to tame a cat, step by step

1. Stock up on raw cod or raw salmon. Fishing near the village is the fastest source.
2. Walk slowly toward the cat. Sprinting, jumping and hitting anything nearby will make it flee.
3. Stop about 6 blocks away and hold the raw fish in your main hand.
4. Crouch and stand completely still. The cat will start walking toward you.
5. When the cat is next to you, right-click (or use the interact button) to feed it.
6. Repeat until hearts burst above the cat and a red collar appears on its neck.
7. Right-click the cat once more to make it sit so it stays put while you build.

All cat skins you can collect

• Tabby — the common brown striped village cat.
• Tuxedo — black with a white chest and paws.
• Red (ginger) — orange tabby markings.
• Siamese — cream with dark points.
• British Shorthair — grey with a white belly.
• Calico — patched orange, black and white.
• Persian — long-haired cream.
• Ragdoll — pale with dark face and tail.
• White — plain white.
• Jellie — grey tabby, added from a community vote.
• Black — only spawns at swamp huts, and always spawns there.

Skin is decided at spawn, so if you want a specific one you have to keep searching or breed for it. All 11 skins behave identically.

How to breed cats and get kittens

1. Tame two cats and bring them within about 8 blocks of each other.
2. Feed each of them one raw cod or raw salmon while they are not sitting.
3. Hearts appear and a kitten spawns, already tamed to you.
4. The kitten inherits the skin of one parent at random, with a small chance of a random skin.
5. There is a 5 minute breeding cooldown before each cat can breed again.
6. Feed the kitten raw fish to speed up its growth into an adult.

The same feed-two-animals pattern powers most farms. If you are working through animal breeding generally, how to breed horses and how to breed villagers cover the two trickiest cases.

Do cats scare creepers? Yes, and phantoms too

• Creepers actively avoid any cat within 16 blocks and will not approach or explode near one.
• Phantoms avoid cats within 16 blocks, so a couple of cats on a rooftop protects you during long no-sleep stretches.
• Cats do not scare skeletons, zombies or spiders, so they are not a general defence.
• Two or three cats spread around your base perimeter covers most approach routes.
• Cats sitting on chests, beds and furnaces block their use, so place them on their own blocks or slabs.

For everything cats do not handle, mob-proof lighting and layout matter more. The mob farm guide and the mob farm planner cover controlling hostile spawns near a base.

Cat gifts and other perks

• A tamed cat that sleeps on your bed has a chance each morning to drop a gift at your feet.
• Possible gifts include string, feathers, raw rabbit, rabbit hide, rotten flesh and phantom membrane.
• Phantom membrane from a cat gift is the easiest source for Slow Falling potions without fighting phantoms.
• Dye a cat's collar by right-clicking it with any dye, which makes it easy to tell your cats apart.
• Tamed cats teleport to you when you travel more than 12 blocks away, unless they are sitting.
• Cats take no fall damage in most cases and will not despawn once tamed.

Phantom membrane feeds straight into brewing. Our potion recipes and brewing chart and the brewing calculator show what to do with it.

Cats vs ocelots: what changed

• Since version 1.14 ocelots can no longer be tamed. They can only be gained trust of with raw fish, and they never wear a collar.
• Cats are a separate mob that spawns in villages and swamp huts, and they are the only tameable feline.
• Both ocelots and cats scare creepers, but only a tamed cat follows you and gives gifts.
• Feeding an ocelot raw fish makes it stop fleeing and lets it breed, which is the closest thing to taming.
• If a mob in the jungle will not accept a collar, it is an ocelot, not a cat.

Common cat taming mistakes

1. Using cooked fish. Only raw cod and raw salmon work.
2. Chasing the cat. Standing still is required; the cat has to come to you.
3. Taming inside a fenced pen with hostile mobs nearby, which spooks the cat mid-feed.
4. Assuming one feed is enough. Taming is random per feed and often takes several tries.
5. Leaving a cat sitting on a chest or bed, which blocks that block from being used.
6. Expecting a black cat outside a swamp hut. Villages never guarantee that skin.

Related guides and tools

Pair this with how to tame a fox for the other tricky tame, the villager jobs and trades guide for making the most of the village you found the cat in, and the house planner for a base your cats can patrol.