What do Horses Eat in Minecraft?

Horses can eat a few different foods in Minecraft. There are 6 different things that you can feed your Horse: Sugar, Wheat, Apples, Golden Apples, Golden Carrots, and Hay Bales. Each also provides different effects after feeding.

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    What Each Type of Horse Food Does

    Two wild white horses on a grassy hill.

    The 3 things that most food items do when used on a Horse are healing, increased growth speed, and increased temper. Healing works as you would expect in that giving food to a Horse will allow them to recover some Hearts. Food will also increase how fast baby Horses grow, with better food speeding things up more.

    A Horse’s temper is how likely they are to let you tame them. The higher the temper, the more likely they are to get tamed when you ride them. The base value of a wild Horse’s temper is between 0 and 100, with each failed attempt raising the next one by 5. Feeding a wild Horse will significantly help with taming.

    Additionally, the golden food items will make a Horse enter Love Mode when fed. This will let you breed Horses with one another or with Donkeys. Another unique feeding aspect that is worth noting is that Hay Bales can’t be used on wild Horses. Furthermore, Zombie Horses and Skeleton Horses can’t be fed.

    Healing, Increased Growth Speed, and Increased Temper of All Horse Foods

    FoodHealing ValueHow Much Growth ProgressesHow Much Temper Increases
    Sugar1 HP (half of a Heart)30 Seconds3
    Wheat2 HP (1 Heart)20 Seconds3
    Apple3 HP (1 and a half Hearts)60 Seconds3
    Golden Carrot4 HP (2 Hearts)60 Seconds5
    Golden Apple10 HP (5 Hearts)240 Seconds (4 Minutes)10
    Hay Bale20 HP (10 Hearts)180 Seconds (3 Minutes)Cannot be fed to wild Horses
    A close up view of a wild white horse on a grassy hill.

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