What do villagers eat in Minecraft?

Villagers are perhaps one of the most useful mobs in Minecraft. While they drop nothing and don't even give XP when killed, they do provide something that no other mobs do: trades.

Villagers can be traded with to acquire something that their profession offers. Armorers can give armor, toolsmiths can give tools, fishermen can give fishing rods, farmers give golden carrots, clerics give Bottles O' Enchanting and Ender Pearls, and librarians give enchanted books.

These can all be really great to have, but the problem is that most villages don't have more than three or four villagers and there are a lot more job blocks than that. Getting more of them requires breeding, and often transportation to another place.

I spent 3 hours moving and breeding villagers in Minecraft and I regret nothing 👨‍🌾

— Ali-A (@OMGitsAliA) October 4, 2019

Villagers eating in Minecraft

Villagers don't appear to eat anything regularly. They don't hunger and therefore don't need to eat food to remedy that. They do, however, breed, and that requires them to "eat."

No, it's not the same as eating for a player, and actually, when players give villagers food, it just kind of disappears. Still, that's the only time villagers currently eat.

Minecraft villagers. Image via The New York Times

Breeding villagers requires players dropping 10 or so food items to a villager and then about the same to another villager. That usually starts the breeding process, though the numbers are highly variable. The good news is that if a villager has too much food, he will give it to another villager to entice them to breed. The breeding process is marked by the appearance of hearts in the air, like other mobs.

Villagers. Image via Radio Times

As far as what will get villagers to breed, it's not everything. Players can try to drop rotten flesh or poisonous potatoes to use up what items have little value, but it won't work. Even cooked food like steak or beef won't work, either. The official Minecraft information describes food that comes from crops, so something that comes from potatoes, carrots, beetroots or wheat.

Bread is the best food to use, though beetroots, carrots and potatoes work too. Bread is the easiest to come by and actually can be traded from villagers. A farmer villager gives 6 bread for an emerald.

Just drop the villagers the bread or other food, and they'll breed as many baby villagers as there are beds available. Sometimes, if they run out of beds they'll stop until new beds are added, but oftentimes, it takes more "eating."

im breeding villagers and the way babies crowd around their oldest sibling is so cute pic.twitter.com/WddpLE69cL

— mon (@tubberry) April 7, 2021

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