Cat
passiveTameableBreedableOurs, not the game's own: the biome names next to that structure, how a cat behaves. No overlap with Bedrock v1.26.40.05. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
The Cat is a passive mob in Minecraft, which means it will not hunt a player down, though its attack damage is not zero, because it uses that on other mobs or in self-defence.
Cats make their home in the Overworld, turning up in Village and Swamp Hut.
What sets it apart is its behaviour: stray cats are shy and run from players.
It carries 10 health points, 5 hearts, and yields 1 to 3 experience when it dies.
It was first added in 1.14 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
Also worth noting: Creepers and Phantoms flee from cats.
For many players the appeal of the Cat is companionship: once tamed it becomes a loyal helper rather than just scenery.
Spawning
Cats spawn in Village and Swamp Hut.
Spawns in villages (1 cat per 4 beds, max 10 per village). Black cats also spawn in Swamp Huts.
Because it is harmless, the Cat is mostly useful as a renewable source of its drops, and you can let a small population breed up over time.
Village
Swamp HutWhere the Cat spawns
- Inside a swamp hut the biome list is replaced: weight 1 there, 100% of the creature list, in groups of 1.
On that same swamp hut list stands the witch at weight 1.
Drops
Killing a Cat produces the following loot:
Nothing here is guaranteed: a kill can give you 0 to 2 String.
In terms of experience, each kill is worth 1 to 3 XP orbs.
These are well worth keeping. Tamed cats bring morning gifts (string, feathers, phantom membrane, etc.) when the player sleeps.
With nothing guaranteed, output is swingy: over many kills the averages hold, but any single Cat may give you little, so farm in volume rather than expecting a jackpot each time.
Because the Cat is harmless and breeds, the efficient long-term approach is a small enclosed pen where a breeding pair keeps replacing what you harvest, rather than hunting wild ones down one by one.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| String | 0 to 2 | not every kill |
It is not the only source of String: the spider drops 0 to 2, the cave spider the same and the strider 2 to 5.
Cat attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.6 x 0.7 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.35 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Movement speed | 0.3 |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Health | 10 points |
 Experience | 1 to 3 |
 Attack damage attribute | 3 |
Where the Cat lands, it has company: the bee, level with it on health, speed and follow range alike.
Cat: 1 item per kill over 1 drop row
The ranges Minecraft Java 26.2 rolls for a cat give 1 String per kill, so 64 String costs 64 kills before Looting.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 String | 1 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 String |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 3 | 192 |
 stone sword | 5 | 2 | 128 |
| iron sword | 6 | 2 | 128 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 2 | 128 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 2 | 128 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 2 | 128 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 1 | 64 |
Coming the other way, a cat hit is 15% of a player's 20 health, 7 of them a full bar, all out of the cat's attack damage attribute of 3.
Behavior & Combat
Stray cats are shy and run from players. Tamed cats follow their owner, sit on command, scare Creepers and Phantoms away, and bring morning gifts.
At 0.3 it is 17th of 72 for speed, level with the ravager at 0.3.
On the stat sheet it carries an attack damage attribute of 3 alongside 10 health (5 hearts), though it is not a mob that comes looking for a fight.
You can tame the Cat: slowly approach a stray cat while holding Raw Cod or Raw Salmon. Stay still and let the cat come to you. Each feeding has a 1/3 chance to tame.
To breed them, hand Raw Cod to a pair of adults; they enter love mode and a baby Cat appears, maturing in roughly twenty minutes.
Bottom line: tame one and the Cat stops being an obstacle and becomes an asset you will want to protect.
Cat commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:cat | Puts a cat on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:cat_spawn_egg | Hands you the cat spawn egg, so you can place cats where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:cat] | Removes every cat that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:cat, spawn egg minecraft:cat_spawn_egg.
Cat farm
The cat has no biome of its own to spawn in: it comes with the swamp hut, at 100% of the creature rolls there, 1 at a time.
That turns a cat farm into swamp hut work: light everything that is not meant to make cats, and the rolls land where you want them.
Each kill is worth 1 to 3 experience and up to 2 string, which is the number to scale the cat farm against.
1 to 3 experience per killString up to 2Cat version history
Minecraft 1.14 brought the cat in on 23 April 2019, 7 years of cat by now.
6 other mobs here came with it: the fox, the panda, the trader llama, the ravager, the pillager and the wandering trader. Of the 88 mobs we list, 55 were in the game before the cat and 26 arrived after it.
The cat numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
Cat variants (11)
A stray cat picks its markings when a village spawns it, and the black cat is the only one with a rule of its own.
| Variant | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| All Black | Spawns at swamp hut, and on a night when the moon is at least 0.9 full. |
| Black | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| British Shorthair | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Calico | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Jellie | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Persian | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Ragdoll | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Red | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Siamese | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| Tabby | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
| White | Any cat the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
What Cat sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every cat sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 7 lines a cat can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.cat.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.cat.ambient |  Cat meows |
| entity.cat.purr | Cat purrs |
| entity.cat.hurt | Cat hurts |
| entity.cat.death | Cat dies |
| entity.cat.beg_for_food | Cat begs |
| entity.cat.eat | Cat eats |
| entity.cat.hiss | Cat hisses |
Advancements that need Cat
One advancement in the game asks for cat by name.
Two by TwoBreed all the animals!
