What Do Foxes Eat in Minecraft? (Complete 2026 Feeding & Taming Guide)

Short answer: foxes in Minecraft eat sweet berries and glow berries. That's it for the items you can hand-feed them. Sweet berries are the primary food — they're used to breed foxes, heal them, lure them, and produce a baby that will actually trust you (which is the only way to get a "loyal" pet fox in Minecraft, because wild adult foxes will never trust a player no matter how much you feed them).

Foxes were added in update 1.14 ("Village & Pillage") and they're one of the more interesting mobs because they can't be "tamed" in the traditional sense — instead, you have to breed two adults so the baby imprints on you. This guide covers exactly what foxes eat, where to find them, and the trick to ending up with a fox that follows you home.

Quick Answer Table

Question	Answer
What do foxes eat?	Sweet berries (primary), glow berries (also work)
Used to breed?	Yes — sweet berries or glow berries
Used to heal?	Yes — restores 1 health point per berry
Used to lure?	Yes — hold sweet berries while sneaking
Can you tame an adult wild fox?	No — you have to breed two adults
Where do they spawn?	Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Old Growth Taiga, Snowy Slopes biomes
What do they drop?	Whatever they were holding in their mouth (food, items they picked up)
Fox color variants?	Red (taiga), Snow / white (snowy biomes)

Why Sweet Berries?

Real-world foxes are omnivores that eat berries in the wild — and Mojang built that into the game. Sweet berries grow on bushes in taiga biomes (the same biomes where foxes spawn), so the food source and the mob spawn naturally pair. You can also use glow berries (introduced in 1.17), which grow in lush caves on vines hanging from cave ceilings.

Foxes will also pick up food items they find on the ground — including chicken, rabbit, eggs, wheat, and even emeralds and totems of undying. They hold the picked-up item in their mouth and will sometimes eat it (which heals them). But you can't hand-feed them anything except berries.

How to Find Foxes

Foxes spawn in:

• Taiga — most common, red foxes
• Old Growth Pine Taiga / Old Growth Spruce Taiga — common, red foxes
• Snowy Taiga — Snow (white) foxes
• Snowy Slopes / Grove — Snow foxes

They spawn in groups of 2–4 and often appear at night. They're nocturnal — during the day they tend to sleep in groups, curled up in the snow or grass. Approaching a sleeping fox is the easiest way to get close to them — they don't wake up easily.

How to Feed a Fox

Step 1: Get sweet berries (or glow berries)

Sweet berry bushes are common in taiga biomes. Pick the berries by right-clicking the bush (be careful — the bushes deal half a heart of damage if you walk into them). A single bush yields 2–3 berries per pick, and the bush regrows berries over time.

Step 2: Sneak close to the fox

If you walk normally toward a fox, it'll run away. Press and hold Shift (or the crouch button on console/mobile) to sneak — foxes don't flee from sneaking players. Get within about 5 blocks.

Step 3: Hold the berry in your hotbar

Select the sweet berry stack. The fox will start watching you and slowly approaching as long as you're sneaking and holding berries.

Step 4: Right-click the fox with the berry

This feeds them one berry. If you feed two adults a berry each, they'll enter love mode (pink hearts appear) and produce a baby within seconds.

The Trick: How to Get a Loyal Fox

This is the most important thing about foxes that many players miss: adult wild foxes will never trust you. No matter how many berries you feed them, they'll run away from you when you stop sneaking, and they won't follow you home.

To get a fox that trusts you and follows you, you need a baby fox that was bred by you:

1. Find two adult wild foxes.
2. Sneak close to them with sweet berries.
3. Feed each adult one sweet berry. They enter love mode.
4. A baby fox appears between them.
5. The baby is "trusting" — it doesn't flee from players and won't grow up to be a flee-from-player adult.

One critical detail: the parents will still try to leave (they're wild). The baby will follow them and you'll lose it. Put both parents on leads before breeding so they stay put, OR keep them in a fenced pen. After the baby grows up (~20 minutes), the baby is "loyal" and you can release the parents.

What Else Foxes "Eat" (Items They Pick Up)

Foxes hold items in their mouth — anything they find dropped on the ground that fits in their mouth. They prefer food items if available. They'll sometimes eat the picked-up item to restore health. Items they commonly pick up:

• Raw chicken, raw rabbit, raw cod (will eat to heal)
• Eggs (will eat — restores small health)
• Wheat, carrots (won't eat — just holds)
• Emeralds (won't eat — just holds, valuable to recover)
• Totems of Undying (won't eat — extremely valuable; foxes can carry them from raid loot)

Pro tip: if you see a fox holding a totem of undying or an emerald, kill it carefully — the dropped item is yours. Some players intentionally drop emeralds near foxes to "collect" them in fox mouths for amusement.

Common Questions

Can I feed a fox raw meat?

You cannot hand-feed raw meat to a fox. They won't accept it from your hand. But if you drop raw chicken, rabbit, or fish on the ground, a fox may pick it up and eat it on its own.

Why won't my fox follow me?

You probably tried to befriend an adult wild fox. Adult wild foxes never trust players. You need to breed two adults to get a baby that trusts you. See "The Trick" section above.

Do foxes attack chickens?

Yes — foxes hunt chickens, rabbits, fish, and small mobs as part of their AI. Don't keep an unsecured fox near a chicken farm.

What's the difference between red and snow foxes?

Visually different (orange vs. white), but mechanically identical — both eat sweet berries, both behave the same way. If you breed a red fox with a snow fox, the baby has a 50/50 chance of being either color.

Can foxes despawn?

Wild foxes don't despawn naturally (they're like passive animals — once spawned, they stay). Trusting (bred) foxes definitely don't despawn. For extra safety, name-tag your foxes.

How many sweet berries does a baby fox need to grow up?

Each sweet berry reduces growth time by 10%. A baby normally takes 20 minutes to grow into an adult; 10 berries fully grows it instantly.

Do glow berries work the same as sweet berries?

Yes. As of 1.17, both work identically — breed, heal, lure, attract. Glow berries grow on cave vines in lush caves and are easier to harvest at scale.

Putting It All Together

Here's the workflow for getting a loyal pet fox:

1. Travel to a taiga biome and collect 6–10 sweet berries from bushes.
2. Find a group of foxes (often sleeping during the day).
3. Sneak close, leash both adults, and lead them home to a fenced pen.
4. Feed each adult one sweet berry. Wait for the baby.
5. Keep the baby in the pen for ~20 minutes until it grows up.
6. The grown baby is now a "trusting" fox that follows you and doesn't flee.
7. Leash it to take it on adventures, or let it roam your base.

For more Minecraft feeding guides, see our armadillo feeding guide, axolotl feeding guide, parrot feeding guide (very important — cookies will kill them!), and sniffer feeding guide.

If you're building a fox pen and want it to be a perfect circle, our Minecraft circle generator can blueprint the exact fence layout. And if you're running a survival server with friends and want your foxes safe even when you're offline, see our best Minecraft server hosting comparison.

That's everything you need to know about feeding foxes in Minecraft. Sweet berries, the breeding trick, and a fenced pen — and you'll have your loyal fox friend. Happy taming!