Ocelot

Ocelots are passive mobs that normally spawn in Jungle biomes. They are the second tameable mob to be introduced into Minecraft, the first being Wolves. When tamed, they become cats, which are also passive. When Ocelots are tamed, they turn into one of three different cat skins. All three are equally likely. Cats will follow the Player and will teleport if they are too far away. They also tend to attack chickens at random. Creepers will run away from Ocelots and cats, making them a great defense against creepers; they won't try to get close to any cats, even if attacked and provoked by the player. Cats do not take fall damage and they will never attack hostile mobs. To make your house creeper-proof, tame enough ocelots into cats and then make them sit around your house.

Spawning

Ocelots seem to spawn much like normal passive mobs. Since they are only native to Jungle Biomes, Ocelots will tend to spawn in inaccessible areas, such as inside bushes and trees. They may wander into other biomes that are close to the Jungle Biome, so one may (rarely) be seen outside of its native biome. You can also spawn Ocelots via Creative Mode with the Ocelot Spawn Egg. There is also small chance that Ocelots can spawn in other biomes, but this is usually because the world was created in an older version. They can only spawn on Grass or Leaf blocks, and at layer 63 or higher. They also have a 1/3 chance of not actually spawning, making them somewhat rarer than other passive mobs.

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 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

The Ocelot is a mainly passive, "shy" mob which will not attack the player. Should the player move or look too abruptly near one, it will sprint away. Ocelots are one of the six mobs with the ability to sprint, the other five being the Player, Endermen, Tamed cats, Zombie Pigmen, Wolves, and Villager children. If enclosed and unable to escape, they will stand still until an exit is made, after which they will quickly sprint through it. Wild Ocelots will occasionally slowly sneak up on chickens, then proceed to pounce and kill, much like that of a wolf to a sheep. However, their behavior when tamed takes priority over this behavior. Cats seems to have no sense of the danger of walking into cacti and lava/fire. Cats will teleport to the player if the player is too far away. Unlike wolves, they cannot be allied. This is due to their primarily passive nature. 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. Finally, the Ocelot will flee if it comes in contact with a wolf, despite that the wolf will not attempt to attack the Ocelot. An Ocelot will not die when falling from a great distance. However, it will if it comes in contact with lava or fire.

Feeding raw fish to an Ocelot will turn it into one of three breeds of Cats, and will follow you. Cats will purr occasionally, and breed when fed raw fish. When you breed Cats, both the parents and offspring will follow you, unlike other animals that breed. 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, while still retaining the ability to sprint. As noted before, 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 will not attack mobs when the player is attacked.

1.2 — Cats trying to sit on one chest while ignoring others close by.

Cats have a purposely annoying behavior (lessened as of 1.2.5pre); they attempt to sit on any chests, beds, or active furnaces within a 5 block radius of the cat. Chests cannot be opened if a sitting cat is on top of it, and cats will ignore everything (even the player moving away) to get on top of one of these blocks. This behavior seems to be the first thing a tamed cat will try to do, even if these blocks are not visible by line of sight to the cat. If the player holds out a fish, the cat will partially follow the player away from the chest, bed, or active furnace it is sitting on. A cat that is already sitting before one of these blocks is placed, or that is told to sit before the cat notices the block, will not try to sit on it. They will not get down from the block (i.e. stop sitting on them) unless the block is removed, a fish is brought out, or you push the cat off of the blocks. Cats only try to sit on the second half of the bed (the half that is placed on the block selected to put the bed on), although they will remain seated if they get pushed by other mobs to the other half of the bed. Cats will only try to sit on the first chest, bed or active furnace they see, and will ignore all other chests, beds and active furnaces until this block is removed. This allows a player to create a distraction, if desired, for the cats while the player works on a project. A cat will not attempt to sit on a chest or bed if the chest or bed is at ground level (inset into 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. Cats will 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. You can also keep cats off of your chests and beds by building a fence around it, adding a gate, and putting a pressure plate on the inside of the fence. The cats will not be able to jump over the fence, and you can manually activate the gate from the outside and it will close automatically behind you.

Taming

To tame an Ocelot, the player must be holding raw fish while standing perfectly still and not looking around too quickly. They are not attracted by milk. This will not work with cooked fish at all, as the Ocelot will then run away from the player. When the food is held, it will slowly approach the player, and when it stops, and turns slightly, right-clicking raw fish on the Ocelot will tame it. In some cases you will need more than five raw fish. This will change it to one of the three tame "cat" types. This will also end its shy behavior. It will now follow the player, although not as strictly as wolves. Note that the player can only tame Ocelots when they walk to the player of their own accord. Caging the animal will not work. Make sure that there are no hostile mobs attacking you and make sure your hunger level is full. The best way to achieve this is to find an ocelot and then turn your game to peaceful. The ocelot will still be there but hostile mobs won't. It is also possible for the Ocelot to become untamed if it goes 2 days without being fed or following you. It will have the same appearance as a tamed cat, but will run from you as if it were untamed. For some reason it will still spawn if you are too far away from it. You may have to go through the process of taming it again if you still want it. So you should give it some attention and let it follow you around every once in a while.

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 (if it is on a structure that is more than 4 blocks high).
The Player has already moved or taken damage from a hostile mob.
The Player is hungry.

Although tamed cats will hunt chickens, they will not fight with tamed dogs.

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 appears to have the color of the parent who reached the other parent first.

In multiplayer, the player can breed his or her cat with the cats of other players. When he or she does this, the player who owns the cat seems to be the one whose cat matches the kitten (e.g. if you breed your tabby cat with another player's Siamese cat and a tabby kitten is born, you own the kitten).

Kittens and Baby Ocelots will not drop experience orbs. The behavior of cats in love mode is the same as any other animal. Kittens' heads are proportional to their bodies, unlike most baby mobs.

Ocelot kittens have been found and they can be tamed and will vary just like the adults between a tabby, tuxedo, or Siamese cat.

Teleportation

Just like tamed wolves, 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:

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.
It is possible to teleport cats a vast distance on SMP, but requires a second player to assist you. By having your cats stand before entering the nether, and player two who does not own the cats stand close enough for the chunk the portal is on to be loaded. When the owner leaves the nether from another portal, the cats will then teleport to you as if you had moved too far. (new to editing, please "improve", and "test" this)

A cat will not teleport:

if the cat has been ordered to sit.
if the cat is in a moving minecart.
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 is standing on ice; a cat will teleport as the player approaches land.
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.
If sitting on a bed, chest or active furnace.

Video

Ocelot/video

History

Ocelots were first introduced in Snapshot 12w04a. Their official release was on March 1st, 2012, when Minecraft 1.2 was released. They are the first mob created by Jon Kågström, an AI Specialist working with Jens Bergensten on Minecraft.^[1] Jens created the texture for the Ocelot, as Jon had trouble doing so himself.^[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.^[3]

In Snapshot 12w04a, ocelots were extremely difficult to tame, and a debug message was on by default which states "spawned ozelot <X>, <Y>, <Z>" to the client and server whenever an Ocelot spawned. These were changed/removed in 12w05a.

Since Snapshot 12w05a, Ocelot spawn rates appear to have dropped; Creepers became scared of cats; cats and ocelots are immune to fall damage, similar to Snow Golems and Iron Golems; and cats can be made to sit.

As of Snapshot 12w06a, the Ocelot now has sounds, along with cats. Cats would also try to jump on a bed if there is one present.

As of version 1.2.4 Jeb stated in the logs that he made cats "more realistic, (read: probably more annoying)". This refers to the fact that Mojang implemented behavior causing cats to sit on beds, active furnaces, and chests. The object cannot be opened or used while a cat is sitting on one, so it becomes an annoyance for the player.

Bugs

From an unloaded chunk; a chunk will unload if you move far enough from the cat or into a different dimension (e.g. the Nether or the End). However, a cat may teleport to you once the chunk it is in is loaded again, even if it was ordered to sit.
Cats will teleport into leaves and get stuck in them.
Ocelots can become stuck in fencing if they walk into it. This happens especially when they are chasing chickens.(Although, there has been speculation that this is not a bug and has been done on purpose, as it happens to cats in reality.)
Upon jumping onto a one block high cactus, they will begin sprinting in circles on top of it until they inevitably die.
Unlike other passive mobs, Ocelots can despawn in the same fashion as hostile mobs. This makes it difficult for the player to permanently cage or hold the Ocelot in any form of captivity for long.
When you are in a Jungle, Ocelots may appear next to you and try to escape (as they normally will), though, when you walk away from them, they teleport back to you as if they were tamed, despite that they are not. This has been fixed in version 1.2.5.
When using a raw fish to breed, holding the right click down will make the Ocelot keep eating the fish and not stop like any other passive mob.
When in a Jungle, Tundra or Forest Biome, Ocelots may continuously spawn and lag up the world; filling entire areas and eventually crashing the client.
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. Pushing them into water reactivates them.
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 on top of a fence (via an adjacent block) will spin in circles.
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. However, when it does, it will be immediately teleported back to the minecart, causing a vision of multiple blinking cat images from the minecart to you (same bug for wolves).
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.
Sometimes loading a world with tamed cats causes them to stand up and be teleported next to you if too far away.
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.
Cats sitting next to a wall have a small chance (6% estimated) to get stuck in a wall and start to suffocate, either after mating or being told to stand up.
Cats sometimes do not teleport across ocean biomes due to the chunks where they are waiting being unloaded before you reach the other side.
Cats cannot be healed by anything but health and regeneration splash potions.
Cats don't avoid cacti and thus easily take damage.
Cats don't avoid fire and will jump upon a burning block, such as lit Netherrack, and die.
Cats and Ocelots can push you out of your bed, but you will still sleep (this applies to all mobs).
Cats will follow other players when you go offline, and will resume following you when you log back on.
For some reason, if there are multiple cats sitting down, not looking at any players for long enough, they will all stare in the same direction (exactly like tamed wolves).
For some reason, restarting a server can teleport sitting cats to random places (e.g. roofs).
When you push a sitting cat into a corner, it can suffocate until it dies.
When logging onto a server, a sitting cat occupying the same block as a fence post cannot be released from the sitting position until pushed from the block.
If a cat touches flowing or stationary lava, it lights on fire as a normal mob would and teleports away (in a way similar to an Enderman in water), but when it is found again, it will still be on fire, but will not be taking damage.
Ocelots and wolves will follow and teleport to any nameless player even if they are untamed.
Sometimes when all tame cats in a world are sitting on a chest or bed, they will all become stuck in the sitting position even after being pushed off, and will not respond to the player clicking for them to stand up. This will continue until all cats randomly teleport to the player at the same time.
Randomly in SMP, cats, even when sitting, will stand up if the player logs out and logs back in.
Sometimes, if you have a tamed cat, once you've logged on to the server your cat will have cloned itself and those new cats will be teleported to you. (Found on SMP, but not thoroughly tested.)
As with tamed Dogs, Cats will sometimes teleport to the player despite having been instructed to sit elsewhere. This often happens whilst deep underground, requiring the player to lead them back to their home.
Rarely, if you attack an ocelot, it will split into two baby ocelots.
Sometimes in servers cats will not follow you (they can still sit down) and if pushed down a 1 block fall, they will teleport to the spot they were seated at.
When their owner is boating in shallow water, cats can teleport into the path of the boat, likely wrecking it.

Trivia

The entity ID, debug messages, and texture filenames use the Swedish word "Ozelot," instead of its English equivalent, "Ocelot."
The tuxedo cat is based on Jeb's female cat, Newton.^[4]
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, where as of snapshot 12w05a cats and ocelots are completely immune to fall damage.
An easy way to tame Ocelots without scaring them off is to hold sneak with mouse sensitivity set to "yawn." The player may also press F8 to ease their cursor movement.
As taming an Ocelot depends on them entering a certain mode first, they will still react to a player in Creative Mode.
Ocelots and cats can climb vines and ladders.
Baby Ocelots, if tamed, will become a kitten instead of a cat.
Ocelots will not sprint away from the player looking at them through transparent blocks.
Cats will not attempt to sit on locked chests.
Creepers will not run away from a cat if there is a block between them.
Ocelots don't spawn in Peaceful mode. However, you can still Spawn them with a spawn egg in Creative Mode.
If you hit an Ocelot and your tamed wolf chases it, the tamed wolf will quickly catch up.
Cats have sound files for hissing (hiss1.ogg, hiss2.ogg, hiss3.ogg), but they aren't currently used in the game.
If you fail to tame an ocelot, it will still show heart particles. Dinnerbone said it's because they like you for giving them fish, but still want more.
Very rarely, ocelots will spawn in large groups right next to you when creating worlds on Mac OS X.

Gallery

Teaser image of the Ocelot released by Jeb. The Ocelot barely seen though the tall grass on the right side.
A closeup of an Ocelot found in a Jungle biome. Other Ocelots can be seen in the background.
BabyOcelot1.png

A baby Ocelot jumping onto leaves.
One Ocelot and several cats with a kitten. Other Ocelots dot the background in the Jungle biome.
Cat+Ocelot1.2.4.png

A tuxedo cat and a player-spawned Ocelot share a "large bed" (three beds in a row) in a player's home.
An image tweeted by Dinnerbone of his attempt at making a cat sitting animation.
2012-01-26 16.44.27.png

A screenshot showing an untamed Ocelot, all three cat patterns, and a small tuxedo 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 tabby cat.
Two cats with a newly bred kitten.
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. They might be guarding a house from creepers.
Comparison between a tamed Wolf and a kitten.
Two cats of each type sitting on Mycelium. A Nether Portal is also visible, and in the background, a wild Ocelot is hiding in Sugar Cane.
Jeb cat.jpeg

Jeb's cat next to the Minecraft tuxedo cat.

References

↑ jebtweet:162226607346565120
↑ jonkagstromtweet:162552698019909632
↑ jonkagstromtweet:163970822497763328
↑ lydiawinterstweet:162557057407520769

Entities

[1] tweet:162226607346565120

[2] stromtweet:162552698019909632

[3] stromtweet:163970822497763328

[4] ydiawinterstweet:162557057407520769

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]