Critters and Companions
by Joo5h
Critters and Companions adds otters, ferrets, koi, dumbo octopuses, sea bunnies, dragonflies, leaf insects and red pandas to the overworld, several of them tameable or bucketable.
What it does
Each creature spawns in a particular biome. Otters appear in rivers and open clams for pearls, which go into a pearl necklace. Ferrets spawn on plains and in forests, can be tamed with raw rabbit, and after being fed raw chicken they dig for loot on a five-minute cooldown. Red pandas sleep through the day in jungles, breed with bamboo and can be tamed with sweet berries. Once tamed, a red panda drives off most aggressive neutral mobs nearby.
Koi, dumbo octopuses and sea bunnies can each be carried in a bucket. Koi shoals grant the player luck, dumbo octopuses hand a drowning player a bubble helmet, and sea bunny slime, collected with glass bottles, crafts into sea bunny slime blocks. Dragonflies spawn over rivers and accept spider eyes as a taming item, and a tamed dragonfly can wear armour crafted in a diagonal line of three ingots. The leaf insect lives in forests and dances to music.
The mod requires Architectury API, Fabric API, Geckolib and YetAnotherConfigLib (YACL). Mod Menu and Trinkets are optional. Critters and Companions is a client and server mod, so the server and every player need it. It is published for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge across seven release versions, 1.18.2 – 1.21.1, and the code is under All rights reserved.
Key features
Pearl necklace crafting
Otters open clams in rivers, and the pearls they yield are used to craft a pearl necklace.
Tameable ferrets and red pandas
Ferrets dig for loot after being fed, and tamed red pandas keep most aggressive neutral mobs away.
Bucketable aquatic creatures
Koi, dumbo octopuses and sea bunnies can be carried in a bucket, and sea bunny slime makes slime blocks.
Dragonfly armour
Tamed dragonflies can be given armour crafted from ingots in a diagonal line of three.
Dumbo octopus bubble helmets
Nearby dumbo octopuses give a drowning player a bubble helmet.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 4
Required by 1 mod
How it compares
Animal Garden - Sea Otter is a Fabric, Forge and NeoForge mod, open source under no license, covering 1.20.1 – 26.3, with a sea otter instead of the full creature set. YDM's Red Panda is a Fabric, Forge and NeoForge mod for 1.16.5 – 1.21.7 that adds only the red panda. Better Than Bunnies is open source under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only, runs client-side only and supports 1.18 – 1.21.5.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critters and Companions | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.18.2 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-08-19 |
| Animal Garden - Sea Otter | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-09-22 |
| YDM's Red Panda | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.16.5 – 1.21.7 | Client and server | 2025-07-10 |
| Better Than Bunnies | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.18 – 1.21.5 | Client-side only | 2025-05-09 |
Questions
Does Critters and Companions need Architectury API or Geckolib to run?
Does the server need the mod if players only walk near the animals?
Which loader should a server owner choose?
In the catalog
Critters and Companions is one of 11,058 Mobs mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,189 Mobs mods for Fabric. 32,366 mods support Minecraft 1.21.1.
More from Joo5h
Similar mods
What the author says
Critters and Companions is a vanilla-style creature mod that will fill the overworld with new animals! Josh/Joosh - Art EterDelta - Coding the mod Scratchy - Sound effects Lytho_ - Fabric port
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/critters-and-companions
- Owner
- Joo5h
- Published
- 2023-03-08
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-08-19
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15