How to Breed Animals in Minecraft?
Learning how to breed animals in Minecraft is one of the most rewarding skills you can develop as you invest more and more hours of playtime into the game. Animals are a pearl of great price in this rich open world, and it’s never a great idea to trivialize any creature you come across, as you may never know when you’ll need it to get out of a situation.
If you plan to play long-term, you might want to start building your animal population right away. Not only can they serve as handy resources for crafting, but they can also be a means of transportation or even companionship. If you’re looking for ways to get Minecraft unblocked at school or work, be sure to check out our helpful guide to stay connected wherever you are.
Here, we highlight tips and tricks for you to start breeding animals in Minecraft and make the most of every mob you encounter.
How to Breed Animals in Minecraft: The Basics
There’s one basic blueprint for breeding animals in Minecraft: have in your possession the apt type of food for each animal you come across. Suppose you feed a specific animal the correct kind of food. In that case, hearts will hover on your screen, indicating that you’ve sparked a relationship with the animal and it’s available for breeding.
I particularly like these mechanics because if you simultaneously feed two animals of the same kind of food within eight blocks of each other, both animals will bond and produce offspring.
When two animals birth an offspring due to your feeding, they’ll not be able to breed again for five minutes. And depending on the type of animal, it’ll take the baby 20 minutes to mature into an adult. Be that as it may, you gain some XP for breeding animals, ranging between 1–7 XP. That extra experience can also help when you start enchanting weapons for survival, especially if you want an undead mob damage boost against zombies, skeletons, and other common threats.
Here are the core mechanics rules you need to know to breed animals successfully:
- Both animals must be fully grown adults — juveniles cannot breed
- Both animals must be the same species (with the horse and donkey exception covered below)
- You must hand-feed each animal one breeding item — animals will not breed if food is simply dropped on the ground near them
- Once fed, an animal enters love mode and will actively pathfind toward a mate within about 8 blocks
- Love mode lasts roughly 30 seconds — if no compatible mate is found within that time, the animal exits love mode without breeding
- After a successful breeding, both parents enter a 5-minute cooldown before they can breed again
- Baby animals take about 20 minutes to grow into adults; feeding them their breeding item repeatedly speeds up this process
- Chickens are a special case — you can also obtain chicks by throwing eggs, though this is not the standard breeding method and success is not guaranteed
- You might need to tame some rather adamant animals to be able to breed them
- Lure animals to well-illuminated areas in order to feed them and kill them effortlessly at night
- Animals like rabbits will elope at the sight of you. Use their preferred food to lure them to your pen/barn
- Carry as plenty food as possible if you plan to breed many animals all at once
Types of Food to Lure Animals
As I deliberated earlier, different animals require different types of food to lure them any inch closer to you — and these same foods are also what you use to actually breed animals in Minecraft. While you can figure out the correct kind of food for an animal as you play the game further, chickens are attracted to and bred with any seeds, including wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, melon seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Cows will follow you if you’re holding wheat.
On the other hand, pigs love carrots, potatoes, and beetroot, while foxes love sweet berries and glow berries. According to the official Minecraft Wiki’s breeding guide, each mob has a specific set of accepted foods, so it’s worth bookmarking that reference as you expand your farm. You can also figure out food that each animal likes on your own.
Breedable Animals and Breeding Foods
One of the most common questions players have is exactly which food works for which animal. The table below gives you a quick reference for every breedable mob in Minecraft, including any prerequisites such as taming.
| Animal / Mob | Breeding Food | Prerequisites / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | Any seeds (wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds) | None |
| Cow | Wheat | None |
| Mooshroom | Wheat | None |
| Sheep | Wheat | None |
| Goat | Wheat | None |
| Pig | Carrot, potato, or beetroot | None |
| Rabbit | Carrot, golden carrot, or dandelion | None |
| Bee | Any flower | None |
| Wolf (dog) | Any meat (raw or cooked) | Must be tamed first |
| Cat | Raw cod or raw salmon | Must be tamed first |
| Ocelot | Raw cod or raw salmon | Cannot be tamed; feed two wild ocelots to breed |
| Horse | Golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple | Must be tamed first |
| Donkey | Golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple | Must be tamed first |
| Horse + Donkey | Golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple | Produces a mule — mules cannot breed further |
| Llama | Hay bale | Must be tamed first |
| Fox | Sweet berries or glow berries | Baby fox trusts the player who bred it |
| Turtle | Seagrass | Female lays eggs on home beach; eggs hatch into babies |
| Panda | Bamboo | Must have at least 8 bamboo blocks nearby |
| Strider | Warped fungus | None |
| Axolotl | Bucket of tropical fish | None |
| Frog | Slimeball | Must be bred near water; lays frogspawn that hatches into tadpoles |
| Camel | Cactus | None |
| Hoglin | Crimson fungus | None |
| Sniffer | Torchflower seeds | None |
| Armadillo | Spider eye | None |
Special Cases When You Breed Animals in Minecraft
Some animals do not follow the simple “feed two adults and wait” pattern. If you have tried to breed animals in Minecraft and nothing happened with one of the mobs below, you have likely run into one of these exceptions.
Animals that must be tamed first
Wolves, cats, horses, donkeys, and llamas all require taming before they will breed. If you need help with taming animals in Minecraft, here is a quick summary for each:
- Wolves: Feed wild wolves bones until hearts appear and a collar forms around their neck. Once two wolves in the same area are tamed, feed each one any meat to trigger breeding.
- Cats: Approach a stray cat slowly while holding raw cod or raw salmon. Feed it fish until it is tamed, then repeat with a second cat. Feed both tamed cats raw cod or raw salmon to breed.
- Horses and donkeys: Repeatedly mount the horse or donkey until it stops bucking and hearts appear. Once tamed, feed each one a golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple to breed.
- Llamas: Mount a llama repeatedly until it accepts you. Once tamed, feed two llamas hay bales to breed.
Horse + donkey = mule
A tamed horse and a tamed donkey can be bred together by feeding each one a golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple. The result is a mule. Mules are useful for carrying chests, but they cannot breed further.
Frogs
Frogs must be bred near a water source. Feed two adult frogs slimeballs to trigger love mode. Afterwards, one frog will swim to a nearby water block and lay frogspawn — a cluster of eggs. The frogspawn hatches into tadpoles, which eventually grow into frogs.
Turtles
Turtles do not spawn a baby directly after breeding. Feed two adult turtles seagrass, and one of them will return to the beach where it originally spawned and dig a nest to lay turtle eggs. The eggs take some time to hatch and will produce baby turtles.
Foxes
Wild foxes can be bred by feeding two adult foxes sweet berries or glow berries. The resulting baby fox will naturally trust the player who bred it, unlike wild foxes that flee on sight. To keep the baby nearby while it grows, attach a lead to it or use fencing around the pair before breeding.
Axolotls
Axolotls require a bucket of tropical fish — not loose tropical fish items — to enter love mode. Keep them in or near water for best results.
Villagers
Villagers use an entirely separate mechanic from standard animal breeding. They breed on their own based on available beds and food supplies in their village rather than being fed directly by the player, so they fall outside the normal breeding system covered here.
Final Notes
Besides its resourcefulness, the ability to breed animals in Minecraft is a fun activity that will eventually grow on you. Ensure to approach animals such as foxes with care; else, they’ll run away. To breed foxes, feed two wild adult foxes sweet berries or glow berries — the baby fox that is born will already trust you, so you do not need to tame it.
If you want to keep the baby fox from wandering off before it grows up, use a lead or surround the area with fencing. For even more structure, you can use Minecraft color codes to create vibrant signs that help label your barns, pens, or animal types clearly, and if you’re building a larger ranch, the right beacon pyramid blocks can help you set up a central beacon nearby.
