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Minecraft frogs are cute, colourful, and a surprisingly nice source of decorative lighting. Although the jumpy critters themselves won't glow, they can produce gorgeous 'froglight' blocks by eating magma cubes - the colour of which depends on the type of frog, which, in turn, depends on where the tadpoles hatched.
Finding frogs, breeding frogs, and producing froglights is a complex process that requires a trip to the Swamp as well as to the Nether, but this Minecraft frog guide will show you the way.
How to find Minecraft frogs and use them
Frogs spawn in Swamp and Mangrove biomes. They typically hang out near bodies of water in groups of up to five frogs. They will usually jump around on the land, but of course, they can also swim. Minecraft frogs are passive creatures that can be lead and lured - if you want a frog to follow you, hold a slimeball in your hand.
Frogs aren't the most useful mobs in Minecraft as they don't drop anything upon death, nor do they produce anything under ordinary circumstances. However, they can produce froglights by eating small magma cubes (not fully grown ones), a hostile mob that spawns in the Nether dimension. If you want to keep frogs at your Minecraft house for fun, or if you want to produce a unique light source, it's possible to breed them (more on that below).
Types of Minecraft frogs
There are three frog types in Minecraft: Temperate, Cold, and Warm. The type is based on the biome the tadpole grew up in, and the main difference between them is their colour. Here’s an overview:
- Temperate frogs: orange. These frogs naturally spawn in normal Swamps. You will also get Temperate Frogs if the tadpole grew up in a mild climate such as hills, most forests, normal taiga, meadows, and plains. Upon eating a magma cube, temperate frogs drop a yellow froglight.
- Cold frogs: green. These frogs don’t spawn naturally. You can breed them in a snowy, frozen environment. Think of a frozen Taiga or snowy mountains. Upon eating a magma cube, cold frogs drop a green froglight.
- Warm frogs: white. White frogs spawn naturally in Mangrove Swamps. You can also breed them in jungles, deserts, and savanna. Upon eating a magma cube, warm frogs drop a purple froglight.
If you're looking for a specific biome type to breed frogs, you can use our list of the best Minecraft seeds to spawn there directly.
Can you tame frogs in Minecraft?
Unfortunately, frogs aren’t going to be your next Minecraft pets. Unlike mobs such as the horse, cat, wolf, and Minecraft foxes, they can’t be tamed. However, you can still make them follow you by holding up frog food (more on that below). If you want, you can lure them into a pool, garden, or even your home. If you ask us, your Minecraft house will look a lot better with a bunch of colourful frogs hopping around.
How to breed frogs in Minecraft
Who cares about house pets if you can start a Minecraft frog farm? Yes, while you can’t tame them, you’re still able to breed frogs. All it takes is the right food: slimeballs.
After feeding slimeballs to at least two frogs, they will enter ‘love mode’ and one of the frogs will start searching for a place to lay their eggs. The eggs, or frogspawn, can only be placed on a water tile with air above it. The frogspawn will eventually transform into tadpoles, and the tadpoles will become new frogs.
Minecraft frog breeding tips
A few more things you might want to know about Minecraft frog breeding:
- The frogspawn will only appear once the pregnant frog finds a suitable water tile (so make sure they have access!).
- One tile of frogspawn can hatch two to six tadpoles.
- Tadpoles may be eaten by Minecraft axolotl.
- Since tadpoles count as baby’s, they don’t drop items upon death.
- Both frogs and tadpoles will follow the slimeball.
- You can move tadpoles in a bucket.
- Tadpoles die when they’re left on dry land.
- Tadpoles die when they're water becomes frozen (so make sure any hatching pools in cold climates are deep enough).
How to get slimeballs to feed Minecraft frogs
Only one more thing you need to figure out before you can start the frog farm: how to find slimeballs? As the name suggests, slimeballs are dropped by slimes. These green, blubbery mobs spawn in slime chunks below layer 40 or in Swamp biomes between layer 50 and 70 when the light level is 7 or less. Don’t worry too much about this; they’re pretty common creatures in the swamp.
Earlier announcements mentioned fireflies as another food source, but this was changed shortly before Minecraft update 1.19 came out, as fireflies are poisonous to real-life frogs.
Once you've established a healthy frog population, use the best Minecraft texture packs to make them look even better.
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