Breeding Animals

Feeding an adult animal its specific food puts it into "love mode," and different species need entirely different foods: wheat for cows, sheep and mooshrooms; carrots, potatoes or beetroot for pigs; seeds for chickens. Two animals of the same species, both in love mode within about 8 blocks of each other, pathfind toward one another, spend a couple of seconds together, and then produce a baby while dropping 1 to 7 experience.

Each parent gets a 5-minute cooldown after breeding before it can be fed again to re-enter love mode; feeding it again during that cooldown simply does nothing. An animal that's fed but doesn't find a partner within 30 seconds drops back out of love mode on its own, though it can be fed again immediately to retry. Since a small starting group can roughly double with each full breeding cycle, a pair of any animal grows into a proper farm surprisingly quickly if you keep feeding pairs as they come off cooldown.

Fencing a breeding pen matters for two separate reasons beyond simply keeping animals contained: it keeps predators like wolves away from smaller animals, and it stops a growing population from wandering off and getting lost or killed by some hazard. A gate lets you get in to feed and harvest without animals slipping out every time it opens. Cows, sheep and pigs are the most beginner-friendly options, since none of them need to be tamed first — wolves, cats and horses all require taming before they'll accept breeding food at all.