What do camels eat in Minecraft 1.20 update?

While camels will fully arrive in Minecraft with the Trails & Tales update, they're currently available to interact with. If players have experimental features activated during Java Edition snapshots and Bedrock Edition previews, they'll find camels roaming the desert villages of the Overworld.

There is a lot to like about camels so far. They can be ridden and are tall enough to evade attacks from different hostile mobs. Up to two players can ride a camel at once.

However, having just one camel doesn't seem fair in Minecraft, so breeding them isn't a bad idea. But how is this accomplished? What do camels need to eat to enter Love Mode?

Unsurprisingly, the camels of Minecraft love to snack on a tasty piece of cactus.

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How to feed a camel in Minecraft 1.20 and its betas

Cacti only make sense to be the natural food source for camels in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Considering the relative lack of vegetation in Minecraft's deserts, the ability to feed cactus blocks to camels makes plenty of sense.

Camels are also happy to snack on cacti in the real world because the plants are full of water, which they need to survive the hot and arid climates they inhabit. However, in the world's most beloved sandbox game, there's a bit of a problem for camels who want to chow down on a tasty cactus.

Specifically, camels take damage from touching cactus blocks like most other in-game mobs. Since this is the case, you will have to feed them the cactus by hand to place them in Love Mode.

Here's how you can feed camels a cactus in Minecraft 1.20:

1. First and foremost, you'll need to find some cactus and break it. If you already have a cactus farm, you're well on your way. However, if you don't have any cacti on hand, you'll need to head to a desert or badlands biome to find some. Keep in mind that while the plant grows in both biomes, it appears more often in deserts.
2. Though colliding with a cactus block causes damage, you can safely break it with your hands or a tool if desired. Any tool works fine. None of Minecraft's tools breaks cactus blocks faster than others.
3. Once you've got your cactus block, it's time to head to a desert village. This is currently the lone location where camels can spawn. They typically roam villages and mind their own business, though they can occasionally lie down and take a breather.
4. Equip the cactus block to your hands, approach a camel, and right-click it. Alternatively, you can press the "Use Item" button on your controller or tap the camel on mobile platforms.

If you feed two camels in close proximity to each other, they'll both enter Love Mode and breed, producing a baby camel. After breeding, the adult camels will be placed on a five-minute cooldown before they can breed again.

In addition to breeding, cacti can be used to lure camels. The mob will follow a player carrying the block in their hands, much like cows following wheat.

However, camels who are lying down won't follow the player. If the player moves outside a 10/16 (Java/Bedrock) block range of the creature, the mob will give up its pursuit.

Cactus can also be used to speed up the growth rate of a baby camel in case players are in a rush to breed and raise a large herd. If a camel gets damaged from combat or hazards, players can even feed their camel cactus blocks to heal them by two health points (one heart) each time they're fed a single block.