Anyone who’s wandered a Minecraft village at dusk has seen those skittish tabbies, calicos, and black cats darting between hay bales and cottage doorsteps. They’re fast, easily spooked, and surprisingly useful once you earn their trust. If you’ve ever wondered how do you tame a cat in Minecraft, you’re not alone: many new players spend hours chasing strays without success, missing out on one of the most helpful passive mobs in the game. Tamed cats don’t just look cute hanging around your base—they offer tangible survival benefits that make the small effort of earning their loyalty well worth it.
What You Need Before You Start Taming a Minecraft Cat
You don’t need any fancy gear to tame a cat, but you do need one specific resource, and a little bit of patience. The only item required to win a stray cat’s trust is raw fish, either cod or salmon, and you’ll need between 1 and 4 pieces per cat depending on how lucky you get. Raw cod is the most reliable resource for taming, as it’s easier to catch in most biomes than raw salmon, even with an unenchanted fishing rod.
You can gather raw cod by fishing in any open body of water, killing guardians or elder guardians in ocean monuments, or looting chests in village fisherman cottages. Avoid using cooked fish at all costs, as it won’t work for taming—strays will ignore you completely if you hold cooked seafood in your hand.
You’ll also want to make sure you’re in a quiet, low-danger area before you attempt to tame. If there are zombies, creepers, or other hostile mobs nearby, the cat will stay in flee mode and never approach you. Clear the area first, and put any weapons away so you don’t accidentally swing at the cat and scare it off.
How Do You Tame a Cat in Minecraft: Full Step-by-Step Process
Taming a cat is far simpler than many players realize, as long as you follow the correct steps and don’t rush the process. Strays are programmed to avoid players who move too fast or get too close uninvited, so patience is the most important skill here. Follow these steps exactly to tame any stray cat you find:
Never chase a cat to tame it, as this will make it avoid you for at least 30 in-game minutes, even if you stand still and hold fish after the fact. If you accidentally startle a group of strays, it’s better to walk away for a little while and come back later rather than trying to follow them. Taming cats can take a few tries if you’re not used to moving slowly around skittish mobs, and it’s not uncommon to accidentally spook a whole group of strays right as they’re about to approach you. If that happens, you’ll have to wait 10 to 15 in-game minutes for them to stop avoiding you, which works out to 1 to 2 minutes of real time. Many players use this short downtime to mess around with casual, low-effort games, and SlotsWinner is a popular pick for quick breaks that don’t require you to leave your desk or switch focus away from your Minecraft session entirely.
Once your cat is tamed, you can right-click it to make it sit in one spot, or right-click again to let it follow you around. It will now be permanently loyal to you, and won’t run away from you even if you move fast or make loud noises nearby.
Key Perks of Having a Tamed Cat in Your Survival World
Tamed cats are far more than just decorative pets—they offer some of the most useful unique perks of any passive mob in the game, especially for players who spend a lot of time exploring or building unprotected outposts. The biggest perk by far is that creepers will actively avoid tamed cats, staying at least 6 blocks away from any cat within your base or exploration party. Cats are one of the only passive mobs that actively repel creepers, making them ideal guard pets for small bases or remote mining outposts where you don’t have time to build full perimeter defenses.
Another great perk is that tamed cats will bring you gifts whenever you wake up from sleeping in a bed. These gifts can include string, feathers, rabbit hide, rabbit’s foot, and even rare phantom membranes, which are hard to get otherwise unless you fight phantoms at night. You don’t have to do anything to trigger these gifts—they’ll just appear on the ground near your bed when you wake up, as long as your cat is not sitting in a fixed spot.
Tamed cats also don’t take fall damage, so you don’t have to worry about them jumping off high cliffs or the roof of your base and dying. You can change your tamed cat’s skin by right-clicking it with any dye, letting you customize it to match your base’s aesthetic or pick your favorite cat coat pattern. The only small downside to tamed cats is that they love to sit on chests, furnaces, and beds, which can block you from using those items if you don’t put them in sit mode first, but most players find this quirk more cute than annoying.
Common Cat Taming Mistakes to Avoid
Even if you follow the step-by-step process, there are a few common mistakes that can make taming a cat far harder than it needs to be, or even make it impossible until you fix the issue. The first mistake most new players make is bringing tamed wolves with them when they try to tame a cat. Wolves are programmed to attack stray cats on sight, so any stray you try to approach will immediately run away if your wolf is following you. Always put any tamed wolves you have into sit mode before you attempt to tame a cat, as wolves will automatically attack stray cats even if you tell them to stay passive.
Another common mistake is trying to tame a cat in the middle of a thunderstorm or during a raid. Cats will stay in flee mode during severe weather or active raids, even if there are no hostile mobs directly nearby, so you’ll waste your fish if you try to tame them during these events. Wait until the storm passes or the raid is fully defeated before you attempt to approach any strays.
Finally, don’t try to tame a cat that’s already sitting on a villager’s bed or chest. These cats are already “claimed” by the village’s programming, and they won’t approach you no matter how much fish you hold. Look for cats that are wandering around the village openly, not perched on furniture, for the highest chance of success.
Now that you know how do you tame a cat in Minecraft, you can start adding these handy, adorable pets to your survival world to keep creepers away and earn free gifts every time you sleep. Whether you’re a new player building your first dirt hut or a veteran exploring remote swamp biomes for rare black cats, the small effort of taming a few strays pays off massively in extra safety and fun little surprises around your base. Try it on your next playthrough—you’ll wonder how you ever played without a cat companion by your side.