Cats are a passive mob tamed from Ocelots. When ocelots are tamed, they turn into one of three different cat skins. Taming an Ocelot will most often yield a ginger cat, while tuxedo cats are a bit less common. Siamese cats are fairly rare. They will follow the player and will teleport if they are too far away. They also tend to attack chickens at random. Starting in snapshot 12w05a, Creepers are scared of cats, and will run from the player if the player's cat is nearby. Also in snapshot 12w05a, cats were changed so that they do not take fall damage.
Appearance
Upon taming an ocelot, the cat it turns into will have one of three skins - tabby, tuxedo, or siamese. Of these, the tabby and tuxedo skins have green eyes, while the siamese bears blue eyes.
Breeding
A pair of cats breed by right clicking them while holding a Raw Fish.
Breeding will create a kitten and the parent cats have a delay of five minutes until they can breed again. The kitten will be the same color as one of the parents, the color is more likely to be that of the parent fed fish last. Kittens will not drop experience orbs. The behavior of cats in love mode is the same as any other animal. Kittens are one of only two mobs whose heads are proportionate to their bodies, the other being baby Villagers.
Behavior
Feeding raw fish to an ocelot will turn it into one of three breeds of cat and it will then follow you. When you breed cats, both the parents and offspring will follow you, unlike other animals that breed. A cat will purr when fed raw fish. When activating its chicken-hunting behavior a cat will assume a 'sneaking' stance and will stalk a chicken before chasing it down. Cats are much calmer than their untamed ocelot brethren as they do not sprint or attempt to escape the player when he/she approaches. Cats are the 1 of 5 mobs (the others being Endermen, Ocelots, Zombie Pigman and the player) that possess the ability to sprint. Cats also possess the ability to open wooden doors. When a creeper gets near a cat the creeper will run away from it. A good strategy for keeping creepers away from your home is keeping a cat near your house at all times. Note that this will not keep other mobs away. Unlike a tamed wolf, cats won't attack mobs if you attack or receive damage from mobs.
History
Cats were first implemented in snapshot 12w04a, and were later introduced in 1.2.
When cats were first introduced, there was no 'sit' function for them; it was later added in 12w05a, and Cats can be told to sit by right-clicking them similar to Wolves.[1]
As of Snapshot 12w06a, Cats now have sounds, along with ocelots.
Bugs
- When a chicken is on the opposite side of a fence from a cat, the cat will get stuck in the fence, until it kills the chicken.
- When disabling the server's "spawn-monsters" parameter, the cats glitch up and don't respond to the player.
- When navigating down a slope (at least one block high) a cat will spin in a circle once it reaches the bottom.
- Cats that manage to get onto a fence (via an adjacent block) will spin in circles
- Multiple tame cats may spawn on a cat when loading a single player world without the use of breeding.
- When loading a world, cats may change their skin in single player.
- Putting a cat in a minecart will cause a huge image glitch where if you go too far away from it, the cat still tries to teleport to you. but when it does, it will be immediately teleported back to the minecart, causing the vision of multiple blinking cat images from the minecart to you. (same bug for Wolves)
- Sitting cats may teleport to the player if they go far from them.
- When you are hit by a mob all the cats you have (even if you made them sit) will teleport to you.
- When sitting on top of a block being pushed by a piston, the cat will temporarily "forget" that it's sitting, teleporting to you if you are far away enough. Strangely, the cats will remain sitting if you're not far away enough to trigger the teleport response.
- Sometimes when a cat is trying to sneak, its torso would go backwards making it appear that the cat has a "bigger" backside.
- Loading a world with tamed cats will cause all of them to sit, even if they were standing before. (Discovered and tested on Creative SP)
- When you are playing offline and you tame a cat, the cat will not respond to you if you are playing online (with an account). This may fix itself after taming a second cat on SMP.
- If there are multiple cats on a world, and the world is reloaded, only 3 cats will be there after it loads, giving baby cats precedence (adult cats will disappear first).
- Cats sitting next to a wall may get stuck and suffocate when attempting to flee from danger. (Discovered in normal difficulty single player)
- Cats sometimes do not teleport across ocean biomes
- Cats cannot be healed by anything but Health splash potions.
Gallery
- 2012-01-26 16.44.27.png
A screenshot showing an untamed ocelot, all three coat patterns, and a kitten.
- 2012-01-26 19.06.22.png
Two fully grown tuxedo cats and their kitten, who just killed a chicken.
- 2012-01-27 16.20.38.png
A baby Wolf, a Siamese cat, and a Siamese kitten.
- 2012-01-27 16.39.17.png
A cat attacking a chicken.
- 2012-01-27 23.20.04.png
A Raw Chicken and Feather harvester, which uses cats to kill the chickens.
- SittingCat.png
A sitting Cat.
- 2012-01-29 15.15.03.png
A baby tuxedo cat hiding in tall grass.
- 2012-03-03 14.04.09.png
A baby Siamese cat sitting with its parents.
Trivia
- The tuxedo cat is based on Jens Bergensten's female cat, Newton.[2]
- In the snapshot 12w05a, creepers will run away from ocelots and cats, making them a great shield against creepers. They won't try to get closer, even if attacked and provoked by the player.
- In real life, cats are known for their ability to flip upright during a fall, particularly larger ones. They still might be injured by landing, however. This fact is reflected in Minecraft, where ever since snapshot 12w05a, cats and ocelots are completely immune to fall damage.
- Like wolves, they can still teleport except when sitting.
- The creepers being scared of cats may be a reference to the third installment of the Pilot and Huxley.
- For some reason, if there are multiple cats sitting down, not looking at any player for long enough, they will all stare in the same direction.
- Cats will purr after being fed raw fish when breeding.
