How to do Taming in Minecraft
Taming in Minecraft means feeding or mounting a specific animal repeatedly until it becomes loyal to you, shown by red hearts and, for most animals, a permanent bond that carries across sessions. Wolves, cats, horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, camels, and parrots all use this mechanic directly. Foxes and dolphins get lumped into taming conversations too, but neither works quite the same way, and pigs can't be tamed at all despite how often people search for it.
Table of Contents
Taming in Minecraft
Every tameable animal needs a specific item or action, and success isn't guaranteed on the first try, most have a random chance per feeding or mount attempt. Once tamed, the animal gets a collar (wolves and cats), a saddle slot (horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, camels), or simply follows and won't attack you again (parrots).
Taming cats
Feed a stray cat raw cod or raw salmon, right-clicking with the fish in hand, and repeat until hearts appear. Tamed cats scare away creepers and phantoms just by being nearby, which makes them worth taming even beyond companionship.
Taming horses
Mount a wild horse repeatedly by right-clicking it, it'll buck you off at first, and each attempt has a chance to tame it. Feeding golden apples or golden carrots while mounting raises that chance and speeds up the process, though it isn't required, patience alone works too.
Taming llamas
Llamas tame the same way horses do: mount repeatedly until hearts show up, no feeding required. Once tamed, they need a chest inventory or a lead to be useful, they can't be ridden with steering the way horses can, only led or set to follow.
Taming wolf
Feed a wild wolf bones, right-clicking with one in hand, repeating until its collar turns red and hearts appear. Tamed wolves fight alongside you against hostile mobs and follow you between areas, sitting on command if you right-click without an item in hand.
Taming parrots
Feed a parrot any type of seed, wheat seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, or beetroot seeds all work, and repeat until hearts appear. Tamed parrots follow you, can perch on your shoulder, and mimic nearby mob sounds, which is a fun side detail more than a mechanic that changes gameplay.
Taming foxes
Foxes don't tame directly the way wolves or cats do, you can't walk up and feed a wild fox into trusting you. Instead, breed 2 foxes with sweet berries, and any baby fox born from that pairing spawns already trusting you, which functions like taming without the direct feeding step. Can I tame a fox in Minecraft the normal way, then, feeding a wild adult? No, breeding is the only path to a fox that won't flee from you.
Taming dolphins
Dolphins actually can't be tamed at all, despite showing up in a lot of "how to tame" lists. Feeding a dolphin raw cod or raw salmon gives you the Dolphin's Grace effect and gets it to swim near you temporarily, but there's no collar, no permanent bond, and no ownership the way wolves or horses work. If a guide tells you dolphins are tameable, that's incorrect, treat it as a feeding interaction instead.
Can you tame a pig in Minecraft?
No. Pigs can be bred with carrots, potatoes, or beetroots, and ridden with a saddle plus a carrot on a stick for steering, but neither of those is taming. There's no collar, no loyalty mechanic, and a saddled pig will still wander off and ignore you the moment you dismount, since it was never actually tamed in the first place.
What animals can you tame in Minecraft and how
Here's the full breakdown of what works, what item or action each one needs, and which animals get commonly and incorrectly assumed to be tameable.
| Animal | Taming method | Item needed | Actually tameable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolf | Repeated feeding | Bones | Yes |
| Cat | Repeated feeding | Raw cod or raw salmon | Yes |
| Parrot | Repeated feeding | Any seeds | Yes |
| Horse | Repeated mounting | None required; gold speeds it up | Yes |
| Donkey and mule | Repeated mounting | None required | Yes |
| Llama | Repeated mounting | None required | Yes |
| Camel | Repeated mounting | None required | Yes |
| Fox | Breeding, not direct taming | Sweet berries | Indirectly, through breeding |
| Dolphin | Not tameable | Raw cod or raw salmon (feeding only) | No |
| Pig | Not tameable | Carrot on a stick (for riding only) | No |
How many animals can you tame in Minecraft
Minecraft has 8 animals with a true taming mechanic as of recent updates: wolves, cats, parrots, horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, and camels. Foxes add a 9th if you count breeding-based trust as a form of taming, though it works differently enough that some players don't group it with the rest. I'd double-check this count against the current version before publishing a hard number, since new mobs occasionally get added with their own taming rules.
Taming in Minecraft on a server
Taming works identically on a multiplayer server, ownership is tied to your player account, so a wolf or cat you tame follows and protects you specifically, not every player on the server. Other players generally can't give commands to your tamed animals unless they have operator permissions or you've set up a plugin that changes ownership rules. One thing worth knowing on a server: unloaded chunks can cause a tamed animal to stop following if you log out and back in somewhere else, so keep pets nearby or leashed if you're relocating across a large map.
Taming in Minecraft Bedrock Edition
Taming methods and required items match between Java and Bedrock; feeding bones to wolves, fish to cats, and mounting horses and llamas all work the same way. What animals can you tame in Minecraft Bedrock, then, versus Java? The list is the same, the only differences tend to be minor UI details, like how the right-click or tap action is triggered on touch controls versus a mouse.
Tameable mobs mods
If vanilla's list feels short, several mods add more tameable creatures on top of it. Ice and Fire adds tameable dragons and hippogriffs, a big jump from anything in vanilla Minecraft, while Alex's Mobs adds a wider range of new animals, some of which can be tamed or ridden depending on the specific creature. Both need Forge or Fabric installed, and exact taming methods per mob are worth checking against the mod's own wiki since they vary creature to creature and shift between mod versions.
Conclusion
Taming in Minecraft covers 8 core animals through feeding or mounting, plus foxes through breeding instead of direct interaction. Dolphins and pigs get mistaken for tameable often enough to be worth calling out directly, neither one actually is. The mechanic stays consistent across Java, Bedrock, and multiplayer servers, so once you've tamed a wolf or a horse on 1 platform, the same steps carry over anywhere else you play.
FAQs
Feed or repeatedly mount the specific animal with its required item, bones for wolves, fish for cats, seeds for parrots, or just persistence for horses and llamas, until hearts appear.
Wolves tend to top most players' lists since they fight alongside you against hostile mobs, though horses are the better pick if fast travel matters more than combat support.
Pigs, dolphins, sheep, cows, chickens, and rabbits can all be bred or fed for temporary effects, but none of them have an actual taming mechanic.
Cats and wolves are both straightforward since you just need a stack of the right food item and a bit of patience, no combat or gold farming required first.
This comes down to personal taste more than a fixed rarity value, a specific horse coat color or a fox with distinct markings gets called "rare" by different players for different reasons.
The Warden, the Ender Dragon, the Wither, the Ravager, and the Piglin Brute are usually the names that come up first when players list the toughest mobs in the game, though none of them are tameable.
Camels are among the newer additions and less commonly encountered in the wild compared to horses or wolves, making them a reasonable pick if you want rarity among the actually tameable animals.
Same answer as above, cats and wolves both come down to feeding the right item repeatedly, with no extra steps like riding or breeding involved.
Not directly. You'd need to breed 2 existing foxes with sweet berries, and the resulting baby fox is the one that trusts you, not any wild adult fox you find.