What Do Armadillos Eat in Minecraft? (Complete 2026 Feeding Guide)

Short answer: armadillos in Minecraft only eat one food — spider eyes. That's it. No carrots, no wheat, no berries. Spider eyes are the only thing that will heal them, breed them, lure them, and speed up baby growth.

Armadillos were added in update 1.20.5 (the "Armored Paws" drop) and they're one of the most useful passive mobs in the game because they drop armadillo scutes — the only ingredient you can use to craft wolf armor. This guide covers everything you need to know about feeding them, finding them, and farming scutes.

Quick Answer Table

Question	Answer
What do armadillos eat?	Spider eyes (only)
Used to breed?	Yes — spider eyes
Used to heal?	Yes — spider eyes restore health
Used to lure?	Yes — hold a spider eye in your hand
Speeds up baby growth?	Yes — each spider eye reduces growth time by 10%
Where do they spawn?	Savanna and Badlands biomes
What do they drop?	Armadillo scutes (passively, every ~5 minutes)

Why Spider Eyes?

Real-world armadillos eat insects, and Mojang chose spider eyes as the closest in-game equivalent — armadillos are insectivores and spiders are arachnids, which is the closest "bug" food Minecraft offers. Unlike most passive mobs, armadillos completely ignore wheat, hay, carrots, beetroot, and every other plant-based food. If you try feeding them anything other than a spider eye, nothing happens.

How to Get Spider Eyes

Spider eyes are a relatively rare drop, so you'll need to know where to look. Here are the main sources:

Killing spiders: Regular spiders have a 33% chance to drop a spider eye when killed by a player. Cave spiders have the same drop rate.
Killing witches: Witches have a chance to drop spider eyes (along with other items) on death.
Fishing: Spider eyes appear in the "junk" loot table when fishing — rare, but possible.
Chest loot: Spider eyes occasionally appear in mineshaft chests, witch hut cauldrons, and pillager outpost chests.

Pro tip: Build a simple spider farm using a spider spawner from a mineshaft. With a spawner-based farm, you can produce dozens of spider eyes per hour — more than enough for breeding and a full armadillo herd.

How to Feed an Armadillo (Step by Step)

Step 1: Find an armadillo

Armadillos spawn naturally in Savanna and Badlands biomes. They appear in groups of 2–3 and wander around the surface during the day. They're light brown, about the size of a fox, and they curl into a ball when threatened.

Step 2: Hold a spider eye

Open your inventory, place a spider eye in your hotbar, and select that slot. Armadillos within about 8 blocks will start following you while you hold a spider eye — this is the easiest way to lure them home to a pen.

Step 3: Right-click (or use) the spider eye on the armadillo

On Java Edition, right-click the armadillo with the spider eye selected. On Bedrock or controller, hold the "use item" button while looking at the armadillo. The spider eye is consumed and the armadillo's hunger/breeding meter fills up.

Step 4: Watch for hearts (breeding)

If you feed two adult armadillos one spider eye each, they'll enter "love mode" — pink hearts appear above their heads — and produce a baby armadillo within a few seconds. Babies follow their parents and take about 20 minutes (one Minecraft day) to grow into adults.

How to Farm Armadillo Scutes

Armadillo scutes are shed naturally by adult armadillos roughly every 5 minutes. The scute drops on the ground next to the armadillo and you can pick it up like any other item. You don't need to brush them, kill them, or do anything special — just keep adult armadillos alive in a pen.

For a serious scute farm:

Build a 10x10 fenced pen near your base.
Lure 6–10 adult armadillos in using spider eyes.
Light the pen well so no hostile mobs spawn.
Check back every 30–60 minutes — you'll typically have 10–20 scutes ready to collect.
Optionally, breed extras and let babies grow up to expand the herd over time.

Armadillos do not drop scutes when killed, so never harvest them. They're worth far more alive.

What Are Armadillo Scutes Used For?

Right now, armadillo scutes have one main use: crafting wolf armor. Wolf armor is applied to tamed wolves to give them extra health and damage resistance, which makes them dramatically more useful as combat companions in raids, mob farms, and Nether expeditions.

You craft wolf armor at a regular crafting table. To repair worn-down wolf armor, you also use armadillo scutes — so even after crafting one set, you'll keep needing more for repairs over time. A small herd of 6–8 armadillos produces enough scutes to keep multiple wolves armored indefinitely.

Defensive Behavior — Why Your Armadillo Keeps Curling Up

Armadillos curl into a defensive ball when they detect undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, husks) or when a player sprints within about 7 blocks. While curled, they can't be fed, can't move, and won't drop scutes. To stop them curling up:

Walk, don't sprint, when approaching them.
Light their pen so undead mobs don't spawn nearby.
Build walls or use solid fences to block undead line of sight.

Healing and Baby Growth

If your armadillo takes damage (from a fall, a mob, or a careless sword swing), feeding it a spider eye restores health. Each spider eye heals about 4 health points (2 hearts).

For baby armadillos, every spider eye you feed reduces the remaining growth time by 10%. So feeding a baby 10 spider eyes will fully grow it instantly. This is useful when you want to scale a scute farm quickly.

Common Questions

Can armadillos be tamed?

No. Armadillos are passive mobs but cannot be tamed like wolves or cats. They won't follow you permanently — only while you're holding a spider eye.

Can I use a lead on an armadillo?

Yes. Leads work on armadillos, which makes transporting them home from a savanna much easier than spider-eye-luring across long distances.

Do armadillos eat any other food?

No. Spider eyes are the only food that affects armadillos. Cake, golden apples, raw beef — none of it does anything.

Will armadillos despawn?

No. Like other passive animal mobs (cows, sheep, pigs), armadillos don't despawn over time when you wander away. They'll stay roughly where they spawned. For extra peace of mind on a busy server, you can give them a name tag or breed them — bred armadillos and named animals are flagged as permanent and will never despawn under any condition.

What biomes do armadillos spawn in?

Savanna, Savanna Plateau, Windswept Savanna, and all Badlands variants (Badlands, Eroded Badlands, Wooded Badlands). They don't spawn anywhere else naturally.

Can baby armadillos drop scutes?

No. Only adult armadillos shed scutes. Babies need to fully grow up first.

Putting It All Together

Here's the simplest workflow for an unlimited armadillo scute supply:

Build or find a spider farm to produce spider eyes consistently.
Travel to a savanna or badlands biome and find 4–6 armadillos.
Lure them home with spider eyes (or use leads for long distances).
Build a well-lit fenced pen and breed them to grow your herd.
Check the pen every hour or so to collect dropped scutes.
Craft wolf armor for your tamed wolves and keep extras for repairs.

If you're building a base where you'll set up your armadillo pen, you might want a circular enclosure to match a tower or rotunda design — our Minecraft circle generator makes that easy. And if you're planning to play with friends on a long-running survival world, a hosted server keeps your armadillo farm running 24/7 without leaving your PC on — see our best Minecraft server hosting comparison for the providers we recommend.

That's everything you need to know about feeding armadillos in Minecraft. One food, one mob, infinite wolf armor. Happy crafting!