Petting - Tame any mob!

Petting - Tame any mob!

Pet mobs and have them become protective companions that follow you, offering support and assistance during your adventures.

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fabricforgeneoforgeadventureequipmentgame-mechanics
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Screenshots

Pet Key Mappings UI
Player riding a Warden.
Pet Wither Skeleton with netherite armor and a diamond sword.
Pet Settings UI
Player riding an Ender Dragon.

About this Mod



Petting Logo

Petting

Turn any mob into your loyal, protective companion.

CurseForge
Modrinth
Discord
License

GitHub · Wiki · Bug Reports · Discord


Petting is a Minecraft mod that lets you tame virtually any mob in the game — hostile or passive, ordinary or boss. Tamed pets follow your commands, defend you in combat, carry your items, ride alongside you, and respawn at a dedicated bed when they die. Every behavior is deeply configurable, making the mod suitable for survival, adventure maps, and modpacks alike.


Features at a Glance

  • Tame almost any mob, including Withers, Ender Dragons, and Wardens
  • Full riding support for land, flying, and swimming mobs
  • Per-pet inventory with armor slots, hand slots, and 14 item storage slots
  • Four AI modes: Following, Sitting, Waiting, Wandering
  • Combat modes: Aggressive, Defensive, Guard
  • Pet Bed block for infinite respawning — pets teleport to their bed on death, even across dimensions
  • Per-pet control mapping system with custom actions and conditions
  • Passive immunities: no fall damage, fire, or lava damage for tamed pets
  • Global whistle via Goat Horn to instantly recall all pets
  • Category system for grouping pets and enforcing per-group limits
  • Full server and modpack configuration via petting-common.toml

Getting Started

Installation

  1. Download the latest release from CurseForge or Modrinth.
  2. Place the .jar file in your mods/ folder.
  3. Launch the game. A default config file will be generated at config/petting-common.toml.

Taming

Taming is how you acquire a pet. By default, right-click a mob while holding Golden Wheat (petting:golden_wheat) to attempt taming it. The item is consumed on every attempt. Heart particles appear on success; smoke particles appear on failure. The taming item is fully configurable via tamingItem.

When tamed, all three combat modes — Aggressive, Guard, and Defensive — are enabled by default. The pet is also automatically named "[YourName]'s [mob type]" with the name tag hidden above their head.

Holding Golden Wheat in either hand (main or offhand) causes nearby untamed animals within 12 blocks to follow you.

Success Factors

Factor Config Key Description
Base chance tameChance Default 33% per attempt
Weakness scaling healthScalesTamingChance Lower HP increases success chance
Health threshold tameHealthThreshold Mob must be missing a certain % of HP to be tameable
Kill requirement requireKillToTame Must have killed at least one of that mob type first
Custom items customTamingItems Assign specific taming items per mob (format: entity_id|item_id)
Whitelist whitelistOnly, tamingWhitelist Only listed mobs can be tamed
Blacklist blacklistEnabled, tamingBlacklist Listed mobs cannot be tamed (supports modid:* wildcards)
Cooldown interactionCooldown Ticks between allowed taming attempts on the same mob (default: 20)

Controls & Pet Management

Empty Hand (Default Mappings)

By default, the control system uses per-pet mappings. Fresh pets have these defaults:

Input Default Action
Right-Click Toggle Sit on/off
Shift + Right-Click Cycle follow/teleport distance presets (5/10 → 10/20 → 20/50 blocks)

These are fully remappable per-pet or globally via the Pet Settings Screen (press P while looking at a pet, or bind controls.petting.open_settings in Controls).

Pet Settings Screen (P Key)

Press P while targeting your pet to open the settings GUI. From here you can:

  • Toggle AI modes: Sitting, Waiting, Aggressive, Guard, Self-Defense, Ignore Whistle
  • Set exact follow and teleport distances
  • Open the Control Mappings sub-screen to customize right-click and shift+right-click actions

Control Mapping System

Each pet (and player default) supports a chain of ordered rules for right-click and shift+right-click. Rules follow the format ACTION|CONDITION and are evaluated top-to-bottom; the first matching rule is executed.

Available Actions

Action Description
SIT Toggle Sitting on/off
TOGGLE_WAIT Toggle Waiting on/off
RIDE Mount the pet
OPEN_INV Open the pet inventory
CYCLE Cycle through distance presets (5/10 → 10/20 → 20/50)
TOGGLE_FOLLOW_TELEPORT Swap the follow and teleport distance values
OPEN_SETTINGS Open the Pet Settings screen
RUN_COMMAND Run a server command (requires the owner to have permission for it)
NONE Do nothing

Available Conditions

Condition When it passes
NONE Always
SADDLE Pet has a saddle equipped
SNEAK Owner is crouching
HEALTH_LT_50 Pet is below 50% HP
HOLD_ITEM Owner is holding any item

Multiple rules can be chained with ;, e.g. RIDE\|SADDLE;SIT\|NONE (mount if saddled, otherwise toggle sit).

Interaction Tools

All tool item IDs are configurable in the [Tool Settings] section of petting-common.toml.

Tool Default Item Function
Status Stick minecraft:stick Right-Click: cycle AI mode (Following → Sitting → Waiting → Wandering). Shift+Right-Click: detailed status report in chat
Whistle petting:follow_whistle Cycle follow distance through presets: 5 → 10 → 20 → 50 blocks
Orb petting:teleport_orb Cycle teleport trigger distance through presets: 10 → 20 → 50 → 100 blocks
Clock minecraft:clock Toggle whether this pet responds to the global Goat Horn whistle
Sword any sword Toggle Aggressive Mode — attacks what the owner attacks
Shield minecraft:shield Toggle Defensive Mode — retaliates when attacked
Cookie minecraft:cookie Toggle Guard Mode — attacks anything that hits the owner
Tether petting:pet_tether Bind the pet to a configurable roam radius around its current position
Shears minecraft:shears Crouch + Right-Click to release the pet back to the wild
Goat Horn minecraft:goat_horn Right-click to teleport all owned pets to your location instantly

Riding

Riding works across all movement types — land, flying, and swimming.

Input Action
Space Jump (on land) / fly upward / swim upward
S Move backward / fly downward / swim downward
Sprint (Ctrl) 1.3x speed boost

Flying and swimming mobs maintain their current altitude or depth when you stop moving. The pet's rotation is always synced with your view. Use the RIDE\|SADDLE control mapping to require a saddle before mounting.


AI Modes

Pets have four movement states:

State Behavior
Following Walks toward the owner and teleports if too far away
Sitting Stays in place; heals over time if sitHealEnabled is on
Waiting Stays in place without healing regeneration
Wandering Roams freely in the area

Combat modes are independent of movement state:

Mode Toggle Tool Behavior
Aggressive any sword Attacks whatever the owner attacks
Defensive shield Retaliates when the pet itself is attacked
Guard cookie Attacks anything that hits the owner

Pet Inventory & Equipment

Open the pet inventory via the OPEN_INV control mapping action, or through the Pet Settings screen.

  • Armor slots — equip helmets, chestplates, leggings, and boots
  • Hand slots — equip swords or shields; pets physically hold and use them
  • Storage — 14 item slots for carrying loot
  • Equipment slots are auto-detected per mob type; extras can be forced via extraEquippableMobs
  • Global stat bonuses are applied to all pets via petBaseArmor and petBaseArmorToughness

Pet Safety

Passive Immunities

All tamed pets are permanently immune to:

  • Fall damage
  • Fire and lava damage

Mutual Pacifism

Pets never attack other tamed pets, even from splash projectiles.

Sitting Regeneration

Pets regenerate health while in the Sitting state. Configurable via sitHealAmount and sitHealInterval.


Pet Beds

The Pet Bed block allows a pet to respawn indefinitely at a fixed location.

  1. Right-click a placed Pet Bed to enter Binding Mode.
  2. Right-click your pet to link it to the bed.
  3. If the pet dies, the death is cancelled — the pet teleports to its bed, fully healed, and sits.

Beds work across dimensions. The dimension is stored at binding time so pets can respawn even if they die in the Nether or End. Right-click the air while in Binding Mode to cancel.


Boss Pets

Boss Special Behavior
Wither Side heads permanently suppressed; center head skull attacks cancelled when idle (no target)
Ender Dragon Supports mounted combat; health bar hidden after taming
Warden Anger levels towards owner and other pets are continuously cleared

The hideTamedBossBars config option can hide boss health bars for any tamed boss.


Entity Conversion

When a tamed mob converts to a new entity type (e.g. Zombie to Drowned), all pet data carries over automatically:

  • Owner UUID
  • Custom name
  • AI modes and follow / teleport distances
  • Saddle and equipped items
  • Pet Bed binding (including the stored dimension)

Advanced Systems

Pet Categories

Group mobs into named categories with shared per-player limits. Useful for modpacks and servers.

Format: SlotID|DisplayName|MobList|DefaultLimit

Example: 1|Undead|minecraft:zombie,minecraft:skeleton|5

Slot IDs 1–20 correspond to the petting:max_pets_category_X player attributes.

Custom Attributes

Gear and perk mods can grant players additional pet capacity using these player attributes:

  • petting:max_pets — increases the global pet limit
  • petting:max_pets_category_1 through petting:max_pets_category_20 — increases limits per category

Admin & Map-Maker Tools

Commands

/pet <target_mob> <target_player>

Instantly tames a mob and assigns it to a player. Requires operator permissions.

Pre-Tamed Mobs via NBT

Spawn a mob that is already tamed using a /summon command:

/summon minecraft:zombie ~ ~ ~ {Forgedata-blocked: {pettingtamed: 1b, ownerUUID: "YOUR-UUID-HERE"}}

Mobs spawned this way will have their hostile AI disabled and be bound to the specified owner. The RUN_COMMAND mapping action also allows owner-gated command execution from pet interactions.


Configuration Reference

All settings are in config/petting-common.toml.

General

Key Default Description
disableRespawnOnTame true Preserve original mob gear and NBT on tame instead of respawning
interactionCooldown 20 Ticks before the same mob can be taming-interacted with again
enableParticles true Show heart particles on successful taming
maxPetsPerPlayer -1 Base pet limit per player (-1 = unlimited; also a player attribute)
enableGoatHornWhistle true Allow Goat Horn right-click to recall all pets
whistleTeleportsTethered false Include tethered pets in the Goat Horn recall
hideTamedBossBars true Hide health bars for tamed bosses
commandFeedbackStyle ACTION_BAR How state changes are shown: ACTION_BAR, CHAT, or NONE

Taming

Key Default Description
tameChance 0.33 Base success rate per taming attempt
healthScalesTamingChance false Lower mob HP increases success chance
tameHealthThreshold 0.0 Required missing health % before taming is allowed (0.0–1.0)
requireKillToTame false Must have killed one of this mob type first
allowGoldenWheat true Enable the universal Golden Wheat taming item
whitelistOnly false Only mobs in tamingWhitelist can be tamed
tamingWhitelist [] Allowed mob IDs
blacklistEnabled true Enable the taming blacklist (default list is empty)
tamingBlacklist [] Mob IDs to block (supports modid, modid:*, modid:prefix*)
customTamingItems [] Custom taming items per mob (entity_id|item_id format)

AI & Survival

Key Default Description
followDistance 10.0 Distance (1–100) at which following behavior starts
teleportDistance 20.0 Distance (5–200) at which pet teleports to owner
boundRoamRadius 10.0 Roam radius (1–100 blocks) for tethered pets
allowOwnerToHurtPets false Allow friendly fire
preventPetToOwnerDamage true Prevent pets from damaging their owner
sitHealEnabled true Regenerate health while sitting
sitHealAmount 1.0 Health per interval (in half-hearts)
sitHealInterval 40 Ticks between heals (20 = 1 second)

Riding & Movement

Key Default Description
allowPetRiding true Master toggle for all riding
mountRequireSaddle false Require a saddle to mount
landRidingSpeedMultiplier 1.0 Speed multiplier on land
flyingRidingSpeedMultiplier 1.0 Speed multiplier while flying
swimmingRidingSpeedMultiplier 1.0 Speed multiplier while swimming
ridingWhitelistOnly false Only whitelisted mobs can be ridden
ridingWhitelist [] Mob IDs allowed to be ridden
ridingBlacklistEnabled false Enable riding blacklist
ridingBlacklist [] Mob IDs that cannot be ridden
manualFlyingMobs [] Force 3D flight for specific mob IDs
manualSwimmingMobs [] Force 3D swimming for specific mob IDs
allowPetAttackWhileRiding true Allow projectile attacks while riding Wither / Dragon

Inventory & Stats

Key Default Description
petBaseArmor 0.0 Global armor bonus for all tamed pets
petBaseArmorToughness 0.0 Global armor toughness bonus
extraEquippableMobs [] Force equipment slots on specific mob IDs
alwaysShowEquipmentSlots false Force armor and hand slots on all mobs
inventoryWhitelistOnly false Only whitelisted mobs receive an inventory
inventoryWhitelist [] Mob IDs allowed to have inventories
inventoryBlacklistEnabled false Disable inventory for blacklisted IDs
inventoryBlacklist [] Mob IDs blocked from having a pet inventory
petPortraitRenderScale 45.0 Portrait scale in the pet inventory screen

Tool & Item Settings

All tool items are configurable. The config key maps to a registry ID (namespace:item_name).

Key Default Controls
tamingItem petting:golden_wheat Primary taming item
statusTool minecraft:stick Status cycling and report
aggressionTool minecraft:iron_sword Aggressive mode toggle (any sword works by default)
defenseTool minecraft:shield Defensive mode toggle (any shield works by default)
guardTool minecraft:cookie Guard mode toggle
followDistTool petting:follow_whistle Follow distance cycling
teleportDistTool petting:teleport_orb Teleport distance cycling
whistleTool minecraft:clock Whistle response toggle
tetherTool petting:pet_tether Area tethering
releaseTool minecraft:shears Release to wild
globalWhistleTool minecraft:goat_horn Global pet recall

Interaction Toggles

Key Default Description
allowPerPetStatus true Enable Stick (status cycling)
allowPerPetAggression true Enable Sword (aggressive mode)
allowPerPetSelfDefense true Enable Shield (defensive mode)
allowPerPetGuard true Enable Cookie (guard mode)
allowPerPetFollowDist true Enable Whistle (follow distance)
allowPerPetTeleportDist true Enable Orb (teleport distance)
allowPerPetWhistleToggle true Enable Clock (whistle response toggle)
allowPetTethering true Enable Tether (area bind)
allowPetReleasing true Enable Shears (release to wild)

License

Petting is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.


Available Versions

Petting 4.2.2release
MC 1.21.1neoforge
April 19, 2026
Petting 4.2.2release
MC 1.20.1forge
April 19, 2026
Petting 4.2.1release
MC 1.20.1forge
April 16, 2026
Petting 4.2.0release
MC 1.20.1forge
April 5, 2026
Petting 4.1.8release
MC 1.20.1forge
February 24, 2026

How to Install Petting - Tame any mob! on Your Server

1

Order Server

Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).

2

Set fabric Loader

In the panel under "Egg", select the fabric loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.8).

3

Install Mod

Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Petting - Tame any mob!". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.

Compatibility

Mod Loaders

fabricforgeneoforge

Minecraft Versions

1.21.8, 1.21.4, 1.21.1 (+7 more)

Server-side

Required

Recommended RAM

4 GB(min. 3 GB)

Frequently Asked Questions

Petting - Tame any mob! server crashes on startup – what to do?

Most common cause: wrong fabric version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.8). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.

Is Petting - Tame any mob! compatible with fabric and forge and neoforge?

Petting - Tame any mob! officially supports fabric, forge, neoforge for Minecraft 1.21.8, 1.21.4, 1.21.1. Note: Forge and Fabric mods are NOT cross-compatible – pick one loader and stick with it. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.

Server lagging with Petting - Tame any mob! – how to optimize performance?

Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Petting - Tame any mob! consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.

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Details

License
GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only
Server-side
Required

Supported Versions

1.21.81.21.41.21.11.20.61.20.51.20.41.20.31.20.21.20.11.19.4