Minecraft Cat Sound Variant

Cat Sound Variants

This content applies only to Java Edition.

Cat sound variant definition files are the data-driven definitions of cat sound variants in datapacks.

Definition format

Cat sound variants use the CAT_SOUND_VARIANT registry; the datapack path is cat_sound_variant (definitions in data/<namespace>/cat_sound_variant).

Definition files use JSON with the following structure:

• JSON file root object
  • adult_sounds (compound, required): sounds used by adult cats. Each is a sound event (registry name or inline):
    • ambient_sound (idle), beg_for_food_sound (begging), death_sound, eat_sound, hiss_sound (hissing at phantoms), hurt_sound, purr_sound (purring), purreow_sound (tamed idle), stray_ambient_sound (untamed idle).
  • baby_sounds (compound, required): same format, for baby cats.

Definition behavior

Cat sound variant data is loaded only once at server startup; /reload does not reload it — a server restart is required. The CAT_SOUND_VARIANT registry must have at least one element, or the game errors during sync and blocks world loading.

Cat sound variants are independent of cat variants; each spawned cat randomly picks one registered sound variant.

Immediate sounds: hurt_sound, death_sound, eat_sound. Random sounds: hiss_sound (hissing at phantoms), beg_for_food_sound, purr_sound, purreow_sound (idle when tamed), stray_ambient_sound (untamed), ambient_sound (idle, alternating randomly with purreow_sound).