How to breed horses, donkeys, and mules in Minecraft

Breeding isn’t the most important activity in Minecraft, but it certainly is fun. The ability to create more animals helps players build better farms. Plus, there are benefits to the various animals that you can breed. For this article, we’ll show you how to breed horses, donkeys, and mules in Minecraft.

This tutorial was written using Minecraft v1.19.51 on a Windows 10 PC. It should be applicable to the Java, console, and mobile versions of Minecraft as well.

Also read: How to make a map in Minecraft

Getting Started

• Horses — Horses are world spawns, and you need at least two of them to begin breeding. Horses are most commonly found in plains and savannah biomes, and often travel in packs of 2-6.
• Donkeys — Similarly, you need two donkeys if you intend to breed them. Donkeys are most commonly found in plains and savannah biomes, and sometimes travel in packs of 2-3.
• Golden Apples — Golden Apples put animals in “love mode”, which is required for breeding. You can find Golden Apples in loot chests or craft them with 8 gold ingots and 1 regular apple.
• Golden Carrots — Golden Carrots also put animals in “love mode”, which is required for breeding. You can find Golden Carrots in loot chests or craft them with 8 gold nuggets and 1 regular carrot.

That’s everything you need for breeding. Of course, you also want stables or some fenced-in structure to keep the animals from wandering off as well.

How to breed horses in Minecraft

Breeding horses is a relatively easy process. You’ll need two horses and two Golden Apples or two Golden Carrots. Otherwise, you just need both horses in a stable or fenced-in area together in order to get them to breed.

• Step 1 — Put two horses together in a fenced-in area or stable.
• Step 2 — Feed each horse one Golden Apple or one Golden Carrot. Either item puts the horses into “love mode”.
• Step 3 — The horses mate and produce a baby horse, otherwise known as a horse foal.
• Step 4 — The horse foal grows up and becomes a full-sized horse. This takes about 30 minutes but can be sped up if you feed it.
• Appearance — Many people breed horses looking for a specific color and marking pattern. Most baby horses have some combination of their parents’ colors and markings. However, there is a roughly 28% chance that it’ll have a random color, a random marking pattern, or both.

It’s a pretty simple process, isn’t it? The hard part is finding the horses and the Golden Apples or Golden Carrots. Once you have all of the ingredients, things happen pretty smoothly after that. There’s only one other minor tidbit. When the horse foal grows up, it has to be tamed like any other horse before it can be saddled or ridden.

How to breed donkeys in Minecraft

Breeding donkeys in Minecraft is virtually identical to breeding horses. You need two donkeys and two Golden Apples or Golden Carrots to get the process started. Donkeys were a bit harder for me to find when writing this tutorial, and that’s probably a function of them traveling in smaller packs than horses. In any case, here’s how to breed donkeys.

• Step 1 — Place two donkeys together in a fenced-in enclosure or a stable.
• Step 2 — Feed each donkey a Golden Apple or a Golden Carrot to put them in “love mode”.
• Step 3 — The donkeys will breed and create a baby donkey, otherwise known as a donkey foal.
• Step 4 — The donkey foal grows up into a full donkey in about 30 minutes. You can speed up this process by feeding it.
• Appearance — Unlike horses, donkeys only have one color. Thus, all of your donkeys will look the same no matter what you do.

Again, this is a relatively easy process. It’s harder to find two donkeys and obtain two Golden Apples or Golden Carrots than it is to actually get them to breed. Much like horses, the baby donkey is wild, so it has to be tamed once it grows up into a full-sized donkey.

How to breed mules in Minecraft

Mules are something a bit different. Mules do not spawn naturally and also cannot procreate. It’s actually true in real life as well. You need one horse, one donkey, and two Golden Apples or Golden Carrots in order to make one. You also unlock the Artificial Selection achievement when you breed a mule.

• Step 1 — Place one donkey and one horse together in a fenced-in area or stable.
• Step 2 — Feed each animal a Golden Apple or Golden Carrot to put them in “love mode”.
• Step 3 — After a while, they will breed and create a baby mule, otherwise known as a mule foal.
• Step 4 — The baby mule grows up to a full mule in about 30 minutes. You can speed up this process by feeding it.
• Appearance — Mules, like donkeys, only have one texture. Every mule you make looks the same.

The process is more or less the same as the other two animals from here. You have to tame a mule after it grows up to use it in any real capacity.

Up next: How to get Minecraft on a Nintendo Switch

FAQ