How to Breed Animals in Minecraft

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: December 29, 2022 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to breed animals in Minecraft. To breed animals, you must find two of the same animal and feed them their preferred food. You can do this on all versions of Minecraft, including the computer edition, Pocket Edition, and console edition.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Taming Animals

1
Know which animals you have to tame before breeding. You can skip this part entirely if the animal that you want to breed isn't one of the following animals:
- Horse
- Wolf
- Cat
- Llama
- Axolotl
2
Obtain your animal's taming material. You will need the following items for the following animals:
- Horse - No material, but your hand must be empty.
- Wolf - A bone.
- Ocelot - Raw fish of any kind (must be either raw salmon or raw fish in Minecraft PE).
- Axolotl - Tropical Fish / Bucket of Tropical Fish
- Llama - No material, but your hand must be empty.
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3
Equip the taming material. If you're attempting to tame a horse or a llama, make sure you don't have anything equipped by selecting an empty slot in your equip bar.
4
Select the animal with the taming material. Right-click, tap or press the left trigger while facing the animal.
- If you're taming a horse or a llama, selecting the animal will cause you to mount it. You'll need to mount and dismount the animal until hearts appear over its head.
- If taming an ocelot, walk up to within 10 blocks of the ocelot, then wait for the ocelot to come to you before selecting it.
- If taming an axolotl, you can attract them by holding a Bucket of Tropical Fish or Tropical Fish.
5
Wait for hearts to appear over the animal's head. You'll need to continue selecting the animal until this happens; once you see red hearts appear over the animal's head, it is tame.
6
Repeat this process with another animal of the same kind. Since you need two animals to breed, you'll need to tame another animal of the same persuasion before you can continue to actually breed them.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Breeding Animals

1
Find two of any animal that you want to breed. Skip this step if you tamed animals earlier.
- You cannot breed two different animals (e.g., a pig and a wolf).
2
Build an enclosure with one open space. You can use a fence to do this, or you can use a two-block-tall wall. Make sure that you include ample room for your animals to move around.
3
Equip your animals' favorite food. Depending on the animals that you want to lure, you'll need to equip one of the following foods:^{[1]
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- Horse - Golden apple or golden carrot. You can make these by placing an apple or a carrot in the middle of a crafting table grid and then placing a gold bar in each of the remaining crafting slots.
- Sheep - Wheat.
- Cow or Mooshroom - Wheat.
- Pig - Carrot, potato, or beetroot.
- Chicken - Seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, or beetroot seeds.
- Wolf (dog) - Any meat that you can find. Wolves must be at full health in order to breed.
- Ocelot (cat) - Any fish.
- Rabbit - Dandelion, carrot, or golden carrot.
- Llama - Hay bale.
- Axolotl - Tropical Fish / Bucket of Tropical Fish
- Goat - Wheat.
- Bee - Flowers
4
Wait for the animals to start following you. Almost immediately after you equip the animals' favorite food, they should turn to stare at you. At this point, you can proceed with luring them into the enclosure.
5
Back into the enclosure. The animals will both follow you into the enclosure as long as you have the food equipped.
- Back all the way into the enclosure to prevent the animals from getting stuck too close to the entrance.
6
Feed both animals. With the food equipped, select both animals that you want to breed. You should see hearts appear over both of their heads.
- If you're feeding a wolf and the hearts aren't appearing, the wolf isn't at full HP. Keep feeding the wolf until the hearts appear, then repeat with the other wolf.
7
Exit and seal the enclosure. Once the animals turn to face each other, quickly leave the enclosure and seal the exit. This will prevent the animals from escaping once the baby is born.
8
Wait for the baby animal to appear. Around three seconds will pass from the time the animals start breeding to the time the baby appears.

Community Q&A

Question

Can I find wolves on Pocket Edition?

Community Answer

Yes, but only in taiga biomes (taiga, cold taiga, mega taiga). You will need bones from skeletons to tame them. They have a one in twelve chance of being tamed by a bone, but once you tame two, you can simply breed them with raw meat to make more. Be careful not to hit them, as they will attack and become untamable. You may need to get a specific seed for a taiga biome, but there's a decent chance you could find one in your current world, as they aren't too rare.
Question

I tried to breed a horse with a golden carrot but it didn't work. What did I do wrong?

Ollieoxenfree

Community Answer

You need two golden carrots - one for each horse you are breeding.
Question

Do the animals need separate pens?

L&M Abajian

Community Answer

No, they don't need them. The pens are just a strategy. I have a huge free range fenced-off farm, and all my animals roam in there. I can breed them without pens.

Warnings

Your farm can get out of hand at a fast rate if you're not careful. Be sure to breed the animals in a large, open space.

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