How to tame animals and mobs in Minecraft

Whether you're exploring the Overworld or spelunking in caves, befriending creatures in Minecraft adds depth to your adventures. Taming gives you companions that assist, defend, or even help you carry items. Let’s dive into how you can build your animal team.

Minecraft lets you tame, guide, or befriend an array of mobs. Common companions include wolves, cats, horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, parrots, camels, foxes, skeleton horses, and Allays. Some creatures, like foxes, axolotls, and Allays, aren’t tamed in a traditional sense like the rest, but they will trust you and stay by your side under certain conditions.

Each mob responds to a specific item or method. Wolves respond to bones, while cats and parrots require raw fish and seeds, respectively. They’ll follow you unless you ask them to sit.

Horses, donkeys, mules, and llamas, require mounting and feeding their preferred foods like apples or carrots to help tame them faster. Camels, however, can’t be tamed but can be bred and ridden. Allays will trust you when given any item; they’ll collect that item type and return it to you or a note block.

Once tamed, many animals can breed when fed certain foods. Wolves and cats will breed with raw meat or fish, Horses and donkeys with golden apples or carrots, and llamas with hay bales. Mules cannot be bred. Breeding creates loyal offspring that follow you from birth. That’s especially handy to know about foxes, as they require breeding wild adults to produce tamed baby foxes that trust you.

Tamed creatures offer real value. Wolves and trusting foxes defend you, horses provide fast travel, Allays help collect resources, and llamas can carry gear. Parrots even alert you to nearby hostile mobs. Beyond utility, Minecraft is a little fuzzier with the right companion.