Ocelot

Ocelots are passive mobs that spawn in jungle biomes. They are the second tameable mob to be introduced into Minecraft, the first being Wolves, and the third being horses. They are based on the animal with same name. When tamed, they become cats, and will change skins. Cats will follow the Player and will teleport if they are too far away.

Creepers will run away from both ocelots and cats, even if provoked by the player, making cats a great defense against a creeper ambush, although a creeper can still blow up on you and your cat if it is too close. Players can use cats to ward creepers away from entrances, key points, or even an entire perimeter of land.

Spawning
Ocelots spawn much like other passive mobs. Ocelots need grass blocks or leaves to spawn at layer 63 or higher. Since they are only native to jungle biomes, ocelots will tend to spawn in inaccessible areas, such as inside bushes. They may wander into other biomes that are close to the jungle biome, so one may be seen outside of its native biome. They also have a 1/3 chance of not actually spawning, making them somewhat uncommon. Players can also spawn ocelots via Creative Mode with the Ocelot Spawn Egg.

Like Squid, Bats, and all hostile mobs, ocelots (but not tamed cats) can also despawn when far enough away from the player.

In creative mode, clicking on a cat with an ocelot spawn egg will spawn more cats of the same type (but only kittens will spawn). Thus, by taming a single ocelot, one can spawn as many cats as one wants, and having one tamed ocelot of each colour results in an infinite supply of cats and kittens.

Appearance
When untamed, these felines have yellow fur with black and brown spots, a gray-black nose, and green eyes. Once tamed, their skin will change to either ginger tabby, tuxedo, or Siamese. Of these, the tabby and tuxedo skins have green eyes, while the Siamese cats have blue eyes. In every case, their tails are in two segments to show curve. A tamed ocelot is noticeably smaller than an untamed one.

Behavior (ocelot)


The Ocelot is a passive, "shy" mob which will not attack the player. Ocelots are one of the seven mobs with the ability to sprint, and should the player move or look too abruptly near one, it will sprint away. If enclosed and unable to escape, they will stand still until an exit is made, after which they will quickly sprint through.

Ocelots will occasionally slowly attack chickens, similar to how wild wolves attack sheep. They assume a 'sneaking' stance and will stalk a chicken before chasing it down. They can even kill through a fence if the chicken is against the fence, so take extra steps to secure your chickens when breeding them in or near jungle biomes.

Creepers will actively avoid ocelots, should they come within a certain radius of the Ocelot. However, this will not deter them from chasing a player, only keeping the Creeper a distance away, about 25-50 blocks. In any case if the ocelot flees the Creeper will resume its normal behavior. An ocelot will also flee if it comes in contact with a wolf, despite that wolves do not attempt to attack ocelots.

Ocelots are immune to fall damage, and will show no hesitation about falling great distances from trees and cliffs.

Taming
An ocelot can be tamed by attracting it to the player with an uncooked fish of any kind, then fed the fish, which can turn it into one of three breeds of Cat that will then follow the player. Taming an ocelot is likely to take more than one fish; two to five on average, but it can take up to twenty.

The player can only tame ocelots under the following conditions: When attempting to tame an ocelot, the player must approach slowly and keep the crosshairs off the ocelot, or else it will become frightened and sprint away. Hold a raw fish and approach carefully. Once close, and especially if the ocelot has turned to face you, stop or use sneak. An ocelot that turns to face you is likely getting ready to approach you and present an opportunity to tame. Walking, sprinting, or jerking the camera when close will cause taming to fail.
 * The ocelot must approach the player of its own accord, which happens when it sees the player holding a Raw Fish and acting in a non-threatening manner (details below). Feeding an ocelot by chasing, trapping, or cornering it will not result in taming it, even though the ocelot may take the Fish this way and the floating heart animation will display.
 * There must be a 7×7 minimum horizontal block area that the ocelot has physical access to during the taming attempt, or else it will "feel trapped" and not be tameable.
 * There must be no hostile mobs attacking during the taming attempt. Also be sure to keep other pets away, as they can scare away the ocelot.

Once the ocelot has approached you, meaning it has crept up to you on its own and is looking at you, move the crosshairs onto it slowly. Using the "cinematic camera" feature will make this easier by automatically smoothing camera movement (there is no default key assigned for this, see options -> controls to assign a key). Click the "use" button or key while holding raw fish to feed the ocelot. The ocelot may begin emitting a heart or puff effect when fed, but is not actually tamed until it visibly changes to one of the three cat models. You may feed the ocelot repeatedly and rapidly to achieve a tame, but be careful not to jerk the camera while doing so.

If right-clicked and nothing happens, then:
 * The player is chasing it.
 * The player is not within 5 blocks of the ocelot.
 * The player or the ocelot is in a minecart.
 * The ocelot cannot escape: There must be a 7 by 7 (or larger) area for the ocelot to roam.
 * The player has already moved or taken damage from a hostile mob.

Tips

 * Getting an ocelot to approach you can take a few tries. Be sure not to become impatient and run after the ocelot continuously. Never run or even walk at regular speed while in close range of an ocelot you're trying to tame, or else it will keep sprinting away and take longer to trust you again.
 * The ocelots' native Jungle biome can make things especially difficult due to having to carefully follow them through complex tree leaf formations. Burning down a section of trees to make the Jungle an ordinary flat grass land can make things easier, as long as the land is at layer 63 or higher (otherwise ocelots won't spawn naturally). Do not mine grass blocks away to flatten the land though, as grass is required for ocelot spawning.
 * Ocelots will not sprint away from the player looking at them through transparent blocks (signs, levers, stairs, etc.), which can be used to make taming easier.
 * Ocelots can be tamed easily using Creative Mode: Build a small cage (must be 7×7) and spawn ocelots in it. They won't be able to stray too far and won't be considered trapped.
 * Keep pets away while attempting to tame an ocelot, pets can scare them away.
 * If you have a lead, you may be able to run or sneak close enough to leash the ocelot before it can run away. You can then lead it to an open area (as above 7&times;7 minimum) and attach it to a fence post, then continue as above.

Behavior (cat)


Once tamed, cats will follow the player who tamed them. They will no longer be afraid of players, and will purr or meow frequently. Like wolves, and with the same limits, they can teleport to a player who moves too far away (see below). Players can make cats sit by right-clicking on them, and will also sit on certain things of their own accord (see below).



Cats, unlike dogs, do not fight hostile mobs. However, they will repel Creepers (whether sitting or not). This can be used to protect players or bases, by stationing sitting cats at the desired area.

Cats are still immune to fall damage, and their behavior reflects this. However, they aren't immune to anything else, and are distinctly incautious. They can set themselves on fire by wandering too close to lava or flame, move too close to Cacti and remain until dead, and wander into fights, intercepting Skeletons' arrows or the player's own attacks. They can also get in the player's way during mining and take axe, pick, or shovel damage. All Cats will also wander into water in order to follow the player, and only adult Cats can swim; baby Cats will sink, during which they can avoid damage for about the same time as a player's breath meter would last. They will then start to take drowning damage and quickly die.



Unless commanded to sit, Cats do not remain still for long, and would rather explore around the player and occasionally hunt chickens, much like their predecessors. They will not attack while sitting, nor when catching up with the player.

Mobile Cats (not already sitting) will attempt to get on top of chests, beds, or active furnaces within a 5-block radius, and once on top will often assume a sitting position without a command from the player. A Chest cannot be opened if a sitting Cat is on top of it. Cats that sit on their own will not get up on command, but will get up if the player holds a fish nearby. The Cat can also be brought down by removing the block or pushing it off.

A Cat will not attempt to sit on a chest or bed if the chest or bed is at ground level (part of the floor), or if there is a block above the chest or bed. Placing stairs, slabs, glass panes, another chest, or some other transparent block above chests is a good way to prevent this, since the player can still open the chest and the cat will ignore it. Amusingly, Cats will also attempt to, but will not be able to, sit on a chest 2 blocks above ground level. It will run around it, but not be able to jump on top of it.

A cat sitting in proximity to the player will, if the player is harmed by a hostile mob (or by careless use of a damaging potion, but not by environmental damage), stand and move from its sitting location a few blocks and then resume sitting, such that the player will need to place the cat again. The cat will teleport if necessary to do this i.e. out of full enclosure by opaque blocks.

Cats can and often do, jump into mine carts. This will prevent you from using the cart and can eventually cause the cart to move... exacerbated by any powered rails, etc. you may have on the rail line.

They can also walk in front of your pick while mining; formerly this resulted in them being damaged, but as of 1.6.2, sometimes it will instead interrupt your mining without hurting them.

Breeding and offspring


When tamed cats are fed raw fish, they will immediately enter "breed-mode", and if two cats are fed, they will breed. Breeding will create a kitten, and the parents cannot be bred again for a five-minute delay. The kitten appears to have the color of the parent who reached the other parent first. Cats cannot breed when both intended parents are sitting, but they can breed if one is sitting and the other is mobile; this can be used to control the breed of the kitten, which will always be the mobile Cat's breed and never the sitting one's.

In Multiplayer, when players can breed his or her cat with the cats of other players, the player who owns the kitten is most likely to be the one whose cat matches the kitten's skin. Naturally, if the parents are identical, the owner must be discovered by the kitten's behavior.



Ocelot kittens can also be found randomly- they occasionally spawn when an adult ocelot spawns, most notably with a spawn egg, and they can be tamed and will vary just like the adults between a tabby, tuxedo, or Siamese cat. Like all baby mobs (excluding baby zombies), Kittens and Baby ocelots will not drop experience orbs.

Teleportation
Just like dogs, they will teleport to the player if a large enough gap (roughly a 20 x 20 x 10 block volume) is created between them and the player with a few exceptions: A cat will not teleport:
 * It is possible for a tamed cat to teleport to an inaccessible location (e.g. under ice) and be injured or suffocate of various causes as a result.
 * If the player dies, a cat will teleport to the player's bed or spawn with them, unless the cat dies as well.
 * if the cat has been ordered to sit.
 * if the cat is in a moving minecart.
 * if the cat has been attached to a fence post with a lead
 * if the player is swimming/steering a boat in deep water; a cat will only teleport as the player approaches land or shallow water that is one block deep (if the player travels long distances on water, whether with or without a boat the cat(s) will not teleport upon reaching land, if they were left on a chunk that was unloaded).
 * if the player dies/leaves a chunk quickly and that chunk becomes unloaded. The cat cannot teleport until the chunk is reloaded.
 * if there are only transparent blocks (like ice, glass) around the player
 * if the player enters a portal and travels to the Nether or The End; a cat will remain in the Overworld until the player returns.

History
They are the first mob created by Jon Kågström, an AI Specialist working with Jens Bergensten on Minecraft. Jens created the texture for the Ocelot, as Jon had trouble doing so himself. They were officially released with Minecraft 1.2.

Trivia

 * Ocelots are considered hostile mobs in the code, strangely. This allows them to despawn.
 * The entity ID, debug messages, and texture file names (until 1.6, when the texture file's name was changed to "ocelot.png") use the Swedish word "ozelot," instead of its English equivalent, "ocelot."
 * The tuxedo cat is based on Jeb's pet cat, Newton.
 * In real life, cats are known for their ability to flip upright during a fall, particularly larger ones; though they still might be injured by landing. This fact is reflected in Minecraft because they take absolutely no fall damage. (see Behavior (ocelot)).
 * Unlike most mobs, ocelots react to players in Creative Mode and will flee when one gets too close.
 * In versions prior to 1.6.2, ocelots didn't spawn in Peaceful difficulty, you can still spawn them with a spawn egg in Creative Mode and you can also use Monster Spawners.
 * Cats have sound files for hissing (hiss1.ogg, hiss2.ogg, hiss3.ogg) that aren't currently used in the Pc Version, only in Xbox, when hit.
 * If you fail to tame an ocelot, it will still show heart particles. Dinnerbone states that it was because they like you for giving them fish, but still want more. Studying the game shows that they are actually going into breeding mode, and if there are two such ocelots in the area they will spawn a baby. If you tame 2 ocelots and they are still in love mode as cats, they can be breed instantly. This makes it so that you can save fish if you wanted to breed them after.
 * Cats cannot be healed by being fed fish, unlike tamed Wolves with meat. The only way to heal a cat is to use a splash potion of Healing or Regeneration on it.
 * By spawning, it is possible to spawn a tamed ocelot, having the same skin as a normal ocelot. On the other hand, it is possible to spawn wild cats which have the cat skin, but will be scared like Ocelots.
 * When an ocelot that has been named with a Name Tag sneaks, the name will become darker and less visible, just like when players sneak on Multiplayer.
 * Ocelots can safely eat pufferfish and not be harmed by the poisoning effect.
 * Using a Splash Potion of Slowness on an Ocelot can make it easier for the player to tame the Ocelot.
 * Taming an Ocelot in the newer snapshots has become more difficult, in the sense that after you have the cat, they may suffocate in leaves if they teleport into them following the player. It is best to try and stay as close as you can to your cat to not let this happen.