Minecraft:Baby

Every baby in Java Edition

A baby pig

Babies are smaller variations of their adult counterparts, typically having faster walking speeds. Some have unique sounds while others use the same sounds as their adult variants but 50% faster and pitched up by 6 semitones. With the exception of the Minecraft:tadpole, baby mobs are considered the same mob as their adult counterpart.

Many baby mobs have different interactions or behaviors compared to their elders, which depend on the mob. For example, baby Minecraft:sheep cannot be Minecraft:sheared for their Minecraft:wool; baby Minecraft:cows, baby Minecraft:mooshrooms, and baby Minecraft:goats cannot be Minecraft:milked; and baby Minecraft:piglins take gold but do not Minecraft:barter. Most baby mobs do not drop Minecraft:loot or Minecraft:experience when killed, with the exception of items they pick up. The following baby mobs do drop loot and/or experience:

Baby Minecraft:zombies, Minecraft:zombie villagers, Minecraft:husks, Minecraft:gurgles, Minecraft:zombified piglins, and Minecraft:zoglins (both loot and experience)
Baby Minecraft:hoglins (only experience)
Baby Minecraft:piglins (only experience, less than adults)

List of baby mobs

The following baby variants exist. Unique names for baby mobs that have them are shown in parentheses:

Template:EntityLink Template:Columns-list

Others

Template:EntityLink

Spawning

Baby animals can be manually spawned by Template:Control Minecraft:spawn eggs on a grown animal. This also works on zombies or variants. Baby animals may also be spawned using the Template:Cmd command with a negative Template:Code tag; for example, using Template:Cmd spawns a baby sheep at the player's position, that matures in 100 Minecraft:ticks (5 seconds). For baby mobs that don't grow up like zombies and Minecraft:piglins, the Template:Code tag is used instead.

The following mobs have a baby variant, but they cannot breed:

Template:EntityLink
Template:EntityLink
Template:EntityLink
- Ghastlings can be spawned by placing Minecraft:dried ghasts in Minecraft:water and waiting.
Template:EntityLink
- Baby mules can be spawned by cross-breeding a horse and a donkey.
Template:EntityLink
Template:EntityLink
Template:EntityLink
Template:EntityLink
- Small sulfur cubes can be spawned by killing the large one.
Template:EntityLink (Minecraft:zombie, Minecraft:husk, Minecraft:drowned, Minecraft:zombie villager, Minecraft:zombified piglin, Minecraft:zoglin, Minecraft:zombie horse, Minecraft:skeleton horse, and Minecraft:camel husk)
- Baby variants of the zombie horse and skeleton horse do not spawn naturally and are not obtainable.

Behavior

Following

Most baby animals choose and follow an adult within 8 blocks of the same species, regardless of whether it is their parent. Babies can choose new targets to follow whenever they do not have a valid target, such as when the previous target dies or moves further than 16 blocks away. Tamed kittens and puppies follow their owner if the parent is absent or sitting.

Baby animals that do not follow adults consist of:

Minecraft:Tadpoles (which do not follow Minecraft:frogs)
Minecraft:Snifflets<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
Baby Minecraft:turtles<ref name="not_follow_adults_je">Template:Bug</ref>
Baby Minecraft:ocelots<ref name="not_follow_adults_je" />
Untamed kittens<ref name="not_follow_adults_je" />
Untamed Minecraft:puppies<ref name="not_follow_adults_je" />
Baby Minecraft:rabbits Template:In <ref>Template:Bug</ref>

Humanoid baby mobs (such as zombies and piglins) never follow adult mobs.

Minecraft:Ghastlings occasionally follow nearby players, most land animals and Minecraft:villagers within a range of 16 blocks, and they prioritize following players.

Growing up

picture of two graphs showing grow time relationship of feedings to minutes

Feed graphic for baby animals in Java Edition

Most baby mobs take 20 minutes to grow up. This can be accelerated by feeding them their breeding item. Green sparkles appear similar to those caused by Minecraft:bone meal. Template:IN, each feeding usually reduces the remaining time before the animal grows up by 10%. The less time remains, the less time is saved by each feeding, making it inefficient to feed an animal continuously until it becomes an adult. After the eighth feeding, the time saved by one feeding is less than a minute, as shown in the graph. Template:IN, each feeding saves 10% of the total time rather than the remaining time, so no more than ten feedings are needed to age up a single baby.

Minecraft:Horses, Minecraft:donkeys, Minecraft:mules, Minecraft:llamas, and Minecraft:camels have different mechanics: different breeding items grow babies by different amounts, and each item ages babies by a constant time rather than a percentage of the remaining time.

If a baby mob is fed with a Minecraft:golden dandelion, it stops and resets its aging.

Variants

File:SheepBreedingColor.png

An example of how a bred sheep inherits a mixture of its parents' colors when possible

When a baby of a species with different fur/pattern variants is born, they usually inherit the pattern of one of their parents, chosen at random, with some exceptions:

In the case of Minecraft:sheep, if the parents have "compatible" colors (meaning that their corresponding Minecraft:dye items could be combined into a third dye), the baby inherits a mix of the parents' colors.
In the case of Minecraft:mooshrooms, breeding two of the same variant has a ¹⁄₁₀₂₄ chance to spawn a mooshroom of the opposite variant. Breeding two mooshrooms of differing variants has an equal chance of a baby mooshroom of either type.
In the case of Minecraft:horses, there is a ¹³⁄₄₅ chance of having a random color/markings instead of matching either of its parents.
In the case of Minecraft:axolotls, a baby axolotl bred by a player (not found in the world) has a ¹⁄₁₂₀₀ chance to be the rare blue variant, with this being the only way to obtain this variant. Otherwise, it inherits the color of one of its parents at random.
Minecraft:Frogs do not inherit their variants from their parents. A frog's variant is determined by the biome it matures from a Minecraft:tadpole in.
In the case of Minecraft:goats, the baby has a 2% chance to be a screaming goat. Similarly, when breeding a normal goat and a screaming goat, the baby has 50% chance to be either one of the two sound variants, and when breeding two screaming goats, the baby will always be a screaming variant.

Interaction with golden dandelions

Using a Minecraft:golden dandelion on a baby mob causes it to become "age-locked". Age-locked mobs cannot grow up into adults. Using another golden dandelion on an age-locked mob removes the age-lock and resets its aging so that it will grow up in 20 minutes. Certain baby mobs cannot be fed golden dandelions, neither to lock or unlock their age. These consist of: