Two villagers breeding.
A baby wolf with its parents.
|
“ |
|
„ |
| — Notch on breeding animals[1] |
Breeding is a game mechanic that allows mobs of the same species to breed with each other in order to produce offspring.
Mechanics
A cow following the player.
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, or it begins the breeding process, or when 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 path-find 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 on the same blocks as the parent that was spawned first, which ends love mode for the parents. Once the parents breed they also drop 1–7. They cannot enter love mode again for about 5 minutes, and they may breed only once per item given. However, they can still be herded with the appropriate material, as can the baby. An animal exits love mode if it does not breed 30 seconds after being fed; however, it can enter love mode again immediately.
After the baby animal has spawned, it follows its parents for 20 minutes before growing to full size. However, if the baby animal cannot find its parents, it randomly chooses another nearby adult animal to follow. The growth of baby animals can be slowly accelerated using the animal's breeding item. Each use takes 10% off the remaining time to grow up, with the exception of horses and llamas where different breeding items speed up the growth by different amounts.
Breeding foods
| Mob | Items | Other | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The following can also be used for growing a baby horse, and for healing:
| ||||||
| Sheep can grow faster if they eat grass. | ||||||
| Pig | ||||||
| Chicken | ||||||
| Tamed Wolf (dog) |
|
Tamed wolves must be at full health before being fed to breed. They must be fed to restore HP. Meat cannot be used to tame a wolf. Only bones can be used to tame wolves. In Bedrock Edition, the following can also be used for healing, but cannot be used for breeding nor growing a baby wolf: | ||||
| Cat (tamed) | Tamed cats must be at full health before being fed to breed. They must be fed to restore HP. | |||||
| Ocelot | Ocelots also trust player. | |||||
| Rabbit | ||||||
| Llama (tamed) | The following can also be used for growing a baby llama, and for healing:
| |||||
| Turtle | Unlike other mobs, Turtles do not have the babies immediately, instead they lay eggs that take a few days to hatch. In Java Edition, they do not follow players in Creative mode holding their breeding item unlike other mobs.[2] | |||||
| Panda | To breed requires 8 bamboo at radius of 5 blocks. | |||||
| Fox | The baby fox always trusts the player and does not run away when approached. | |||||
| Bee | All one-block-tall and two-block-tall flowers work. | |||||
| Hoglin[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0] |
|
Warped Fungi do not work. | ||||
| Strider[upcoming: JE 1.16] |
|
Crimson Fungi do not work. |
Villagers
A group of villager children "playing tag."
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 of a random type, independent of the types of the parents. Unlike many baby animals, baby villagers do not have big heads in Java Edition. Baby villagers run around the village, and can "play" tag. A baby villager killed by a zombie may produce 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 needed to have in a farm, by the starting number and if the player waits until all the mobs become mature (this does not apply to villagers):
Xn+1 = Xn + floor(Xn/2)
where Xn is the number of mobs at generation n.
Alternatively, if the player starts with X0 mobs and want to reach a population of at least N, it can be achieved in ceil(log(N/X0)/log(3/2)) generations.
Baby animals
An example of how a bred sheep inherits a mixture of its parents' colors when possible.
Baby animals are smaller variations of their parents, having small bodies, relatively big heads, higher pitched sounds, and faster walking speeds. Lambs cannot be sheared for their wool, chicks do not lay eggs, and calves and mooshroom calves cannot be milked. Baby animals follow one of their parents (within 8 blocks) until they grow up (if the parent dies or there is none, they pick a nearby adult of their kind). Tame puppies and kittens follow their owner if the parent is absent or sitting, and puppies attack aggressive mobs just as a mature dog would. They do not drop loot or experience if killed (excluding baby zombies and baby zombie pigmen).
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 true even if one or both of the parents have just been sheared before breeding and have not yet grown their coats back. In Bedrock Edition, however, lambs do not inherit combined colors of their parents.
Baby animals can be manually spawned by using spawn eggs on a grown animal. This also works on zombies or variants.
Baby animals may also be spawned using the /summon command with a negative Age tag; for example, using /summon sheep ~ ~ ~ {Age:-100} spawns a baby sheep at the player's position, that matures in 100 ticks. For zombies and piglins[upcoming: JE 1.16], the IsBaby:1 tag is used instead.
Mooshroom calf
Baby zombie
Baby zombie pigman
Baby drowned
Villager child (plains) in Java Edition
Villager child (plains) in Bedrock Edition
Baby squid [Bedrock Edition only]
Baby bee
- Baby Zombified Piglin JE1.png
Baby zombified piglin[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Repopulation | Breed two cows with wheat. | Breed two cows or two mooshrooms. | 15G | Bronze | ||
| Zoologist | Breed two pandas with bamboo. | — | 40G | Gold | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed two animals together | Husbandry | Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs:
| husbandry/breed_an_animal
|
![]() | Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 24 mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals
|
History
| Java Edition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | September 9, 2011 | Jeb tweets that animal breeding is pushed to 1.9. | |||
| September 25, 2011 | Notch also tweets an image of dozens of sheep crowded together, saying "They won't stop breeding!!!" | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Introduced breeding. Animals could breed instantly, without any "cooldown". | ||||
| No baby animals yet; all animals were born fully-grown. | |||||
| All sheep were born with white wool, irrespective of their parentage. | |||||
| October 3, 2011 | Notch tweets the first image of a cow calf and piglet. | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | Baby animals added for pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, and mooshrooms. | ||||
| Animals now enter "love mode" when fed with wheat. | |||||
| Interestingly, snow golems could also enter love mode before this update. | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | Lambs can now be either of their parents' colors, even if they were dyed. | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w03a | Wolves can now be bred with any type of meat. | |||
| 12w04a | Cats (tamed ocelots) can now be bred with raw fish. | ||||
| 12w08a | Baby villagers and kittens are now the only baby mobs that have a head the right size for the body. | ||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w22a | Breeding now give experience. | |||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | Zombies that infect villager children now create baby zombie villagers, which are faster than normal zombies, do not age, and survive in sunlight. | |||
| 12w36a | Pigs are now responsive to carrots, chickens to seeds, with cows and sheep still breeding with wheat. | ||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w16a | Added horses, donkeys, and mules, all of which can breed to produce foals. | |||
| 1.6.2 | pre | Baby zombies and baby zombie pigmen now spawn naturally among regular ones. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Baby mobs can now be grown faster by being fed. Each feeding reduces the remaining time to maturity by 10%, having no effect if only 9 seconds remain. 28 feedings reduce the remaining time to around a minute, from the initial time of 20 minutes. In addition, baby sheep reach maturity one minute sooner for every time they consume grass. | |||
| January 27, 2014 | Dinnerbone tweets an image of many cows, presumably testing the breeding system. | ||||
| 14w26c | Wheat's acceleration of foals growth has been reduced. | ||||
| 14w27a | Added rabbits, which can be bred to produce rabbit kits. | ||||
| pre1 | Chickens can no longer be bred using melon seeds, pumpkin seeds or nether wart. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Chickens now use melon seeds, pumpkin seeds and beetroot seeds to breed, in addition to wheat seeds. | |||
| 15w35a | Baby zombie villagers now retain their profession. | ||||
| 15w46a | |||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Added polar bears and cubs. Unlike other mobs, polar bears attack any player, if a cub is nearby. | |||
| Added husks, including their baby form. | |||||
| 1.11 | 16w39a | Added llamas and crias. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w07a | Added turtles and turtle hatchlings. | |||
| 18w10d | Baby zombies now burn in daylight. | ||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | Added pandas and panda cubs. | |||
| 18w44a | Cats and ocelots have been split into their own mobs, thus cats are no longer tamed ocelots. | ||||
| Added seven more cat textures and their kitten variants. | |||||
| 19w07a | Added foxes and fox kits. | ||||
| 1.15 | 19w34a | Added bees and bee larvae. | |||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.16 | 20w06a | Added hoglins. | |||
| 20w07a | Added hoglin piglets. | ||||
| Added piglins and baby piglins. | |||||
| 20w13a | Added striders and stridlists (baby striders). | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.6.0 | Introduced baby animals. Breeding has not been added yet. Babies naturally spawn. | ||||
| 0.8.0 | ? | Introduced breeding. | |||
| 0.11.0 | build 11 | Mobs must be touching to breed (previously they could breed with any mob in an 8 block radius, regardless of obstruction). | |||
| Added baby zombies. | |||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Villagers can now breed. | |||
| Breeding is now done through a Feed button. | |||||
| Added baby zombie villagers. | |||||
| Added ocelot kittens and tamed kittens. | |||||
| 0.13.0 | build 1 | Added rabbits, which can be bred to produce kits. | |||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombies now have 15% chance to mount mobs. | |||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Added husks, including their baby form. | |||
| Added horses, donkeys, and mules, all of which can breed to produce foals (except mules). | |||||
| Added zombie horses and skeleton horses, which include foal variants. | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Added polar bears and cubs. Unlike other mobs, polar bears attack any player if a cub is nearby. | |||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Added llamas and crias. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.13.8 | Added drowned and their baby variants. | |||
| beta 1.2.20.1 | Added dolphins, which can be bred to produce baby dolphins. | ||||
| Baby zombies now burn in daylight. | |||||
| 1.5.0 | beta 1.5.0.0 | Baby zombies now sink underwater. | |||
| Feeding dolphins raw fish no longer breed them; baby dolphins now spawn naturally. | |||||
| beta 1.5.0.4 | Added turtles and baby turtles. | ||||
| 1.8.0 | beta 1.8.0.8 | Added pandas and baby pandas. | |||
| Feeding ocelots now breed them, instead of taming them. | |||||
| Feeding an ocelot kitten raw fish now increase its growth speed, instead of taming it. | |||||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.1 | Added foxes and fox kits. | |||
| 1.14.0 | beta 1.14.0.1 | Added bees and bee larvae. | |||
| Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.51 | Added piglins and hoglin piglets. | |||
| Added piglins and baby piglins. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU7 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Added breeding. | |
| TU11 | Added a message when the player tries to breed an animal when the spawn limits have been reached. | ||||
| TU12 | Added baby villagers. | ||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Baby mobs can now be spawned by using | |||
Issues
Issues relating to "Breeding" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Any two adult animals of the same species are able to breed with each other, even if one animal is the parent of the other.
- There are baby squid and baby dolphins in Bedrock Edition, even though they cannot be bred by the player.
Gallery
A family of dogs in a snowy tundra biome as well as a kitten.
See also
References


























![Baby squid [Bedrock Edition only]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/6/67/Squid_JE2_BE2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/77?cb=20190806115829)



![Hoglin piglet[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/d/da/Baby_Hoglin_JE4.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/120?cb=20220617150021)
![Baby piglin[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/a/a9/Baby_Piglin.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/90?cb=20220610024511)
![Baby strider[upcoming: JE 1.16]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/a/a6/Strider_JE2_BE2.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/105?cb=20200618080058)


