Minecraft Cat Taming Guide: Locations, Food, and Benefits

Cats are useful Minecraft companions, but earning their trust takes more patience than taming a wolf. They spook easily, so rushing at one with fish in hand is more likely to send it sprinting away than win a new pet.

Where Cats Spawn

Stray cats naturally spawn in villages and swamp huts. Villages are usually the better place to search because they can contain more cats and more coat varieties. Swamp huts only spawn black cats, which can also appear in villages.

Cats can respawn in villages if the village is large enough and has at least four occupied beds.

Note: Older Minecraft players may remember taming ocelots into cats. That changed in Minecraft 1.14, and ocelots can no longer be tamed into cats.

How to Tame a Cat

To tame a cat, hold raw cod or raw salmon and crouch. Stay still and let the cat approach you slowly. If you move too quickly, it may run off.

Once the cat comes close enough, feed it the fish. Each feeding has a chance to tame the cat permanently. After taming, raw cod or raw salmon can also be used to heal cats or breed them.

Why Tamed Cats Are Useful

Cats are not just decorative couch supervisors. Creepers and phantoms are afraid of cats and will move away when one is nearby.

Cats can also bring gifts after you sleep near them. Possible gifts include a rabbit’s foot, rabbit hide, string, rotten flesh, feather, raw chicken, or phantom membrane.

That makes cats both practical and charming, which is more than can be said for most mobs that stare at you from rooftops.