There’s nothing more exciting than stumbling on a herd of fluffy llamas while trekking through a mountain biome in your survival world. They’re adorable, they can carry tons of extra items for long trips, and they even spit at hostile mobs that try to attack you. If you’ve ever stopped to ask what do the llamas in Minecraft eat before trying to bring one back to your base, you’re asking the right question. Feeding them the wrong items won’t just waste your resources, it can also make taming or moving them way more frustrating than it needs to be.
What Do the Llamas in Minecraft Eat, Exactly?
A lot of new players mix up llama food with horse or donkey food, but llamas have a very short list of items they will actually eat. Unlike horses that love apples, golden carrots, and sugar, llamas only go for two wheat-based items, each with different uses. There’s no trick to getting them to eat other foods, so don’t waste your rare enchanted golden apples or other valuable items trying to win them over.
- Hay bales: This is the most useful llama food by far. Each hay bale heals 10 full health points for an injured llama, speeds up baby llama growth by 3 full minutes, and is the only item that can trigger breeding between two tamed adult llamas. You can craft one hay bale with 9 wheat, so it’s a much more space-efficient option for long trips too.
- Wheat: This is the go-to early game option for llama care. Each wheat heals 2 health points, speeds up baby llama growth by 20 seconds, but it won’t trigger breeding. It’s perfect for when you’re just starting out and don’t have enough extra wheat to craft into hay bales for storage.
You’ll know a llama is interested in the food you’re holding if it tilts its head and walks toward you. Just right click on the llama with the food in your hand, and you’ll see hearts pop up above its head if the feeding was successful. If nothing happens, that means the llama is already at full health and doesn’t need to eat right now. You can still use the food to lead it around, though, as long as it’s in your active hand.
How Feeding Impacts Llama Taming and Behavior
One of the most common mistakes new players make is thinking they need to feed a llama to tame it, but that’s not true at all. You don’t need food to tame a llama – all you have to do is mount it repeatedly until it stops bucking you off and shows heart particles above its head. That said, feeding a llama before you try to tame it can make the process go a lot smoother, especially if you accidentally hit it while you’re trying to get close.
If a llama gets aggressive and starts spitting at you because you hit it by mistake, feeding it a few pieces of wheat will calm it down almost immediately. It will stop seeing you as a threat, and you can try mounting it again without getting spit on. I learned this the hard way on my first survival world, when I smacked a llama with my pickaxe by accident and spent 10 minutes running away from its constant spit attacks before I tried feeding it.
Fed llamas are also much more likely to follow you when you hold a hay bale, even if you don’t have a lead attached to them. That’s a game changer when you’re moving a whole caravan of llamas across thousands of blocks to your base. You won’t have to worry about them wandering off into caves or getting stuck behind trees as long as you keep their favorite food in your hand. I once moved 8 llamas 3000 blocks without a single lead just by holding a hay bale and walking slowly, and I didn’t lose a single one.
Best Feeding Practices for Survival Mode Llamas
How you feed your llamas will depend a lot on what stage of the game you’re in, and what you’re using the llamas for. If you’re just starting out and only have one or two llamas to carry extra mining supplies, you don’t need to stock up on tons of hay bales. A stack of wheat in your chest will be enough to heal them if they take damage from mobs or falls. You can even pick wheat from wild farms on your exploration trips if you run out, no need to set up a dedicated farm right away.
If you’re running a large llama caravan for long exploration trips, or if you’re breeding llamas to get one with the maximum 15 slot inventory, hay bales are way more efficient. You should always keep a stack of hay bales in your inventory if you run a llama caravan, because if your llamas get attacked by creepers or skeletons, you can heal them in one or two clicks instead of fumbling with 5 pieces of wheat per llama. Losing a llama that’s carrying half your diamond mining loot is not a mistake you want to make twice, I promise.
For players breeding llamas, make sure you have at least two hay bales per pair of adult llamas if you want to breed them quickly. Baby llamas will grow up on their own in 20 minutes if you leave them alone, but feeding them hay bales can cut that time down to just a few minutes if you need extra pack llamas for a big trip. Just don’t waste hay bales on baby llamas if you don’t have a pressing need for more adults, it’s a waste of wheat that you could use for bread or other farm animals instead.
Common Llama Feeding Myths Debunked
There are a ton of wrong tips floating around about llama care, so let’s clear up the most common myths that waste players’ time and resources. First, a lot of players think llamas eat the same food as horses, but that’s not true. They won’t touch apples, carrots, sugar, or golden food items, no matter how long you hold them out. Save those items for your horses and donkeys, they’ll get far more use out of them.
Another common myth is that feeding a llama more hay bales will increase the number of inventory slots it has. Llama inventory size is random when you tame it, ranging from 3 slots for small llamas to 15 slots for the largest ones. Feeding them won’t change their size or inventory capacity at all, so don’t waste stacks of hay bales trying to upgrade a small llama’s carry weight. If you want a llama with more slots, just tame more llamas until you find one with the size you want.
Some players also think feeding llamas will make them stop spitting at other mobs, but that’s not the case either. Llamas will automatically spit at wolves, stray skeletons, and other llamas that attack them, no matter how well fed they are. If you don’t want your llamas to start a fight with a pack of wolves, just lead them away from the threat instead of trying to calm them down with food. Their spit actually does a small amount of damage, so it can even be useful for fending off weak mobs if you don’t have a weapon handy.
Feeding a llama rotten meat or other poisonous foods does nothing, either. Llamas have a very simple diet, and they’ll ignore any items that aren’t wheat or hay bales. You can use rotten meat to feed your dogs or trade it with cleric villagers instead, it has no use for llama care. The same goes for cookies, berries, or any other food you might have lying around in your inventory.
At the end of the day, taking care of llamas is super simple once you know what do the llamas in Minecraft eat, and what each food item is used for. Whether you’re just taming your first pack llama for a mining trip, or breeding a whole herd for cross-world exploration, sticking to wheat for early game care and hay bales for breeding and long trips will make the process seamless. Next time you spot a herd of llamas in the mountains, grab a stack of wheat before you approach, and you’ll have a loyal, item-carrying companion in no time.