Breeding
Breeding is a game mechanic that was introduced in Beta 1.9 pre-release 2. This feature allows players to produce an endless supply of certain types of animals, as long as they have the required materials to initiate breeding.
Procedure[edit | edit source]
Foods used to breed animals are different for different types of animals.
- Chickens breed after being fed Seeds (any kind).
- Cows, Sheep and Mooshrooms breed after being fed Wheat.
- Horses breed after first being tamed, and then after each is fed a Golden Carrot or Golden Apple.
- Llamas breed after first being tamed, and then after each is fed a Hay Bale.
- Tamed Ocelots (also referred to as "cats") breed after being fed Raw Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, or Clownfish.
- Pigs breed after being fed a Carrot, Potato, or Beetroot.
- Rabbits can be bred by feeding each one a carrot, a golden carrot, or a Dandelion.
- Tamed Wolves can be bred by feeding them meat.
- Foxes can be bred by feeding them sweet berries.
- Striders breed after being fed Fungus (warped only).
- Hoglins breed after being fed Fungus (crimson only).
Animals cannot enter "love mode" if they had a baby within about the last five minutes. Chickens cannot only be bred with seeds, but they can also occasionally hatch when an Egg is thrown (by right-clicking while it is equipped or via a dispenser). Chicken eggs have a 1/8 chance of hatching into a chicken. Utilizing breeding can be useful for farming. Sheep can have different colored babies depending on the parents' color if two sheep with the same color make a baby of it. Villagers can also breed and make baby villagers, but it only happens when they have enough food (Carrots, Wheat, Beetroot, Potatoes, and Bread) in their inventory and have enough beds in their village. Villagers cannot be forcefully bred unless in creative mode, in which case a player can use a Spawn Egg on a normal villager. Villager breeding is dependent on the number of occupied structures within the village's perimeter. Minecraft calculates the number of "occupied buildings" in a village based on the number of Doors and then compares that to the number of villagers currently living. Villager breeding is extremely rare, however as many villagers need to be deceased for it to occur, leaving them extremely weak with only 33% of the villagers remaining.
Baby Animals[edit | edit source]
In Beta 1.9 Pre-release 3, Notch added baby animals. The baby animals are smaller variations of their parents. They have smaller bodies, normal-sized heads (same as the adults), high pitched cries and walk faster. They currently don't drop anything. The infant that is born will usually follow the parents. The baby animals grow into a full-sized animal after one day in-game (20 real minutes). A baby animal cannot be bred until it becomes an adult.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Breeding two horses together will produce a foal or a baby horse. However, breeding a donkey and a horse together will produce a sterile mule (unbreedable) like its real-life counterpart.
- Before 1.2.1, cows and mooshrooms could breed together; the baby would randomly take on the appearance of one of the parents.
- Squids are one of the passive mobs in the game that cannot be forcefully bred, as their offspring will spawn randomly.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
- Breeding2.png
A baby calf, piglet and chick.
- Breeding3.jpg
Notch's first attempt at breeding.
- VillagerInLove.png
Villagers in love.