Breeding

Breeding is a game mechanic that allows mobs of the same species to breed with each other to produce offspring (with the exception of breeding a mule, which requires a horse and donkey).

Mechanics
Each animal that can be bred has a food item used to lead and breed it (there are a few special cases, described below). Once an animal notices a player holding its food, it follows the player until either the player is out of range, the player stops holding the item, it begins the breeding process, or it is attacked. This includes baby animals. Note that animals are uninterested in food lying on the ground. One item per parent is needed to breed a single baby.

Love mode
When an animal is fed its food, it enters "love mode", preparing to breed with another animal of the same species that is also in love mode. Animals that are in love mode emit heart particles constantly. When both animals are fed, they pathfind toward each other, up to eight blocks away. The two animals kiss for about two and a half seconds, and then a baby animal of the same species spawns either in between the parents or in the same position as the parent that was spawned first, ending love mode for the parents. Breeding also drops. The parents do not eat breeding items for 5 minutes, after which feeding them once again causes them to enter love mode. However, they still follow players holding breeding items, as does the baby. An animal exits love mode if it does not breed 30 seconds after being fed; however, it immediately becomes able to be fed and enter love mode again.

Unlike other animals, mules can not be bred this way. Breeding a mule requires a union between a horse and a donkey.

Villagers


Villagers do not breed automatically when given food. Villager breeding depends on both the number of valid beds in the area (see the village page for full details), as well as whether the villagers are "willing." A villager may become willing if they have 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots in their inventory. They may also become willing as a result of trading with a player. When they breed, they produce a smaller villager. Unlike many baby animals, baby villagers do not have big heads $$. Baby villagers run around the village, and can "play" tag. A baby villager killed by a zombie may become a baby zombie villager, depending on difficulty.

Breeding formula
A player may want to know the number of mobs required in a farm to reach a certain goal, for example: to make a full-powered enchanting table with bookshelves (46 leather needed) or for full leather armor (24 leather), in case the player has a cow farm. There is a formula to calculate how many mobs are needed in a farm, by the starting number and if the player waits until all the mobs become mature (this does not apply to villagers):


 * $$X_{n+1}=X_n + \left\lfloor\frac{X_n}{2}\right\rfloor$$

where $$X_n$$ is the number of mobs at generation $$n$$, and $$\lfloor \, \rfloor$$ is the  operation.

When using larger values of n, it may be easier to approximate the number of mobs using an exponential function to avoid doing too many recursive calculations:


 * $$F(n) = 1.622\,e^{0.4055n} + 0.5051$$

where the input is the n-th generation and the output is the approximate number of mobs after breeding. The constant $$e$$ is Euler's number.

Alternatively, if the player starts with $$X_0$$ mobs and wants to reach a population of at least $$N$$, it can be achieved in $$\left\lceil \frac{\log{\frac{N}{X_0}}}{\log\frac{3}{2}} \right\rceil$$ generations, where $$\lceil\,\rceil$$ is the  operation.

Baby mobs


Except for baby frogs, baby animals are smaller variations of their parents, having small bodies, relatively big heads, and faster walking speeds. Their sounds are the same as their adult variants but 50% faster and are pitched up by 6 semitones. Lambs cannot be sheared for their wool, chicks do not lay eggs, calves and mooshroom calves cannot be milked, and horses, mules, donkey foals, piglets and stridlings cannot be saddled or ridden. They do not drop loot or experience if killed (excluding baby zombies and their variants).

Except for baby rabbits, wild wolf pups, ocelot kittens, stray kittens, and baby turtles and tadpoles, most baby animals ($$) and except for tadpoles almost all baby animals ($$) choose and follow an adult within 8 blocks of the same species, regardless of whether it is their parent. Babies can choose new targets to follow whenever they don't have a valid target, such as when the previous target dies or moves further than 16 blocks away. Tamed pups and kittens follow their owner if the parent is absent or sitting, and pups attack aggressive mobs just as a mature wolf would.

When lambs are born, they usually inherit the color of one of their parents, chosen at random. However, if the parents have "compatible" colors (meaning that their corresponding dye items could be combined into a third dye), the lamb inherits a mix of the parents' colors (see Dye). This holds even if one or both of the parents have just been sheared before breeding and have not yet grown their coats back. $$, however, lambs do not inherit the combined colors of their parents.

Baby animals can be manually spawned by spawn eggs on a grown animal. This also works on zombies or variants.

Baby animals may also be spawned using the command with a negative Age tag; for example, using  spawns a baby sheep at the player's position, that matures in 100 ticks (5 seconds). For baby mobs that don't grow up like zombies and piglins, the IsBaby:1 tag is used instead. Baby animals take 20 minutes to grow up. This can be accelerated by feeding them their breeding item. Green sparkles appear similar to those caused by bone meal. Each feeding reduces the remaining time before the animal grows up by 10%. The less time remains, the less time is saved by each feeding, making it inefficient to feed an animal continuously until it becomes an adult. After the eighth feeding, the time saved by one feeding is less than a minute, as shown in the graph. Horses, donkeys, and llamas have different mechanics: different breeding items grow babies by different amounts, and each item ages babies by a constant time rather than a percentage of the remaining time.

Baby undead mobs and baby piglins cannot be bred and never grow up. Baby polar bears (cubs) can grow up, but cannot be bred, and growth time cannot be accelerated.

Baby hoglin is considered a monster in Java Edition, but it is considered an animal in Bedrock Edition. This is because hoglin and baby hoglin are counted toward monster mob cap in Java Edition, while in Bedrock Edition, they are counted toward animal mob cap, despite its hostile nature.

Animals
All of these mobs are considered animals, as the majority of them are real-life animals. The majority of these mobs can be created when their parents have entered love mode after being fed.

Monsters
Any baby mob that counts toward the "Monster Hunter" and "Monsters Hunted" advancements or are simply undead is considered a monster and belongs here. Out of all these monsters, only hoglins can be bred, and can grow up into its adult form. The rest of these baby monsters cannot be bred and never grow up.

Other
Villagers are produced from breeding, but do not count as animals or monsters.

Trivia

 * Any two adult animals of the same species can breed with each other, even if one animal is the parent of the other.
 * Baby squid and baby dolphins exist in Bedrock Edition, even though they cannot be bred by the player.