Breeding for Bacon: A Fun and Rewarding Guide to Minecraft Pig Farming

Minecraft, an open-world sandbox game filled with boundless opportunities for creativity and exploration, offers numerous exciting activities for players. Among them is the chance to breed animals, such as pigs, for various purposes. Whether you’re looking to establish a thriving animal farm for a reliable food and meat source or simply wanting to fill your Minecraft world with adorable piglets, this guide will walk you through every step of how to breed pigs in Minecraft.

Introduction to Pig Breeding in Minecraft

Pigs in Minecraft are passive mobs that serve multiple purposes. They are primarily used as a food source but also offer entertainment value and the opportunity for pig riding. Pigs are relatively easy to breed, making them an excellent choice for beginners looking to venture into animal farming in the game.

Locating Pigs for Breeding

Pigs are usually found in grassy biomes during the day, appearing anywhere except in the Badlands plateaus and snowy tundras. They tend to spawn in groups of two to four and avoid cliffs and hazards. In villages, pigs can spawn in animal pens, stables, or near Butcher Villager workshops. Additionally, piglets occasionally spawn instead of pigs, though they don’t provide porkchops if killed.

Preparing Your Pig Pen

Before starting your pig farm, it’s crucial to prepare an enclosed space for your pigs. This can be done by constructing a wooden fence around the designated area and installing a gate for easy access. This is to keep your pigs from wandering off, ensuring they stay within the boundaries of the farm.

Gathering the Necessary Materials

To breed pigs, you’ll need specific items that serve as their food source. The primary foods pigs consume in Minecraft are carrots, potatoes, and beetroots. These items can be found in villages, or they can be cultivated on your farm. You can grow more of these crops by tilling the ground near water and planting the seeds.

Luring Pigs for Breeding

Once you have your pig pen and the necessary food items, it’s time to lure the pigs. Equip one of the food items and approach a Minecraft pig. The pig will start following you as long as you’re within a six-block range. Lead the pigs towards your enclosure and once inside, close the gate.

The Breeding Process

To initiate the breeding process, you must feed each pig with one of the food items. Upon feeding, hearts will appear over their heads, indicating that they are in ‘love mode.’ Soon after, a baby piglet will be born. It takes 20 minutes for a piglet to grow into an adult pig. This maturity time can be decreased by 10% by feeding the baby pigs any of the three vegetables.

Post-Breeding: Cooldown Period

After breeding, the parent pigs will enter a cooldown period of 5 minutes. During this time, they cannot breed again. However, once the cooldown period is over, you can repeat the breeding process as many times as you wish.

Pig Riding

In addition to serving as a food source, pigs in Minecraft can also be ridden for fun. For this, you will need a saddle, which unfortunately cannot be crafted. Saddles can only be found inside chests in dungeons or Nether Fortresses. Once you have a saddle, you can equip it on a Minecraft pig and ride it around.

Expanding Your Pig Farm

The more pigs you have, the larger your potential food source becomes. Therefore, it’s advisable to continuously breed pigs and expand your animal farm. Keep in mind that you should also increase the size of your pig pen as your baby pig population grows to avoid overcrowding. And you can eventually make cooked porkchop.

Conclusion

In conclusion, breeding pigs in Minecraft is a relatively simple and rewarding process. It provides a reliable food source and adds an element of fun with pig riding. With the right materials and a bit of patience, you can establish a thriving pig farm in your Minecraft world. Happy farming!

Note: The game control to feed the pigs depends on the version of Minecraft: