How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

This article is about the mob. For the wearable armor-like item, see Turtle Shell.

A turtle (in Java Edition), also known as a sea turtle (in Bedrock Edition), is a common passive mob found in beach biomes. They are the only source of scutes, which drop from baby turtles when they mature into adults.

Spawning[]

Turtles spawn on the sand in the Overworld on beaches with daylight, but not in its snowy variant or stony shores, occasionally in small groups of up to 5 individuals.

10% of turtles spawned are babies.

In Java Edition, turtles spawn at light levels greater than 8, on sand blocks less than 4 blocks above sea level (typically at Y=62).

In Bedrock Edition, turtles spawn in groups of 2–6, at light level 7 or higher, at Y=60–67.

Drops[]

When turtles die, they drop:

  • 0–2 seagrass. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–5 with Looting III.
  • 1–3, if killed by a player or tamed wolf.
  • 1 bowl, if killed by lightning.[1]

Baby turtles do not drop anything when they die.

When a baby turtle grows up to an adult it drops:

  • 1 scute

Upon successful breeding, 1–7 is dropped.

Behavior[]

Turtles can both move around on land and swim in water. They move slowly on land, but they can swim at a fast speed in the water. Like other passive mobs, they move around aimlessly and flee when attacked. When on land, they generally attempt to move to the nearest water source with direct sky access.[verify] When in an enclosed area, such as a player-made enclosure, they generally swim in circles if the water is in the area, and rarely go on land to explore, if there is any.

Turtles cannot be attached to leads,[2] but they can be led by a player holding seagrass within 10 blocks of the turtle.

Turtles can be picked up by boats‌[Java Edition only] and minecarts.

Turtles are killed instantly when struck by lightning.

As with other aquatic mobs, turtles suffer extra damage when hit by a trident with the Impaling enchantment,‌[Java Edition only]‌[until JE Edition Combat Tests] and cannot drown, despite the fact that real-life turtles breathe air.

Predators[]

Turtles and turtle eggs are attacked by the following mobs:

Mob Attack baby turtles Attack adult turtles Attack turtle eggs
Zombies, zombie villagers, husks and drowned Yes No Yes
Zombified piglins, blaze No No Yes
Skeletons, strays and wither skeletons Yes No No
Goats Randomly Randomly No
Wild ocelots, wild wolves, stray cats and foxes Yes No No
Tamed wolves When owner attacks When owner attacks No
Zoglins Yes Yes No
Johnny vindicators Yes Yes No
Wardens Randomly Randomly N/A
Withers Yes Yes Partial[note 1]
Ravagers No No Partial[note 1]‌[BE only]

Zombies and their variants deliberately trample on turtle eggs, causing them to break.

  1. ↑ a b Unlike zombies, zombified piglins, and their variants, withers and ravagers do not intentionally break turtle eggs but are able to break turtle eggs if they are in its way.

Home beach[]

Turtles remember the block on which they hatch as their home beach. No matter how far away the turtle is, it always attempts to return to its home beach to lay its eggs after breeding.

If the player uses a tool enchanted with Silk Touch to obtain and move turtle eggs to a new location before hatching, the baby turtles remember the new hatching location as their home beach.

If a turtle is spawned from a spawn egg, summoned with the /summon command, or spawned by mob spawners, it remembers the spawn location as its home beach.

How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

A turtle digs sand around the block on which it lays its eggs.

Breeding[]

How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

A turtle lays eggs after digging.

Feeding two turtles seagrass causes them to enter love mode, causing one of the turtles to have eggs in its inventory and appear a bit bigger (about 0.2 of a block) than normal turtles. The pregnant turtle then travels back to its home beach, which is where it first spawned. Upon arrival, it seeks a nearby sand block on which to lay its eggs. A turtle always lays eggs within 9 blocks from where it was born. The turtle digs vigorously while turning 360 degrees for several seconds a few times, and then lays 1–4 turtle eggs. In Java Edition, the pregnant turtle re-enters love mode for 30 seconds after laying the eggs while the other turtle is available to be fed again immediately after mating.[3] In Bedrock Edition turtles have a 90-second cooldown between breeding.

Eggs[]

Turtle eggs can be placed on any block in clusters of up to 4, however, they hatch only on sand or red sand, above or below water. Eggs can be broken without tools and can also be trampled by living entities falling or walking on them. When a multi-egg block is trampled, eggs are broken one at a time. A turtle can walk on the eggs without breaking them. Harvesting eggs with Silk Touch drops an egg, which the player can collect. Mining an egg with Silk Touch resets the egg's growth.

Turtle eggs progress toward hatching by cracking. Cracking occurs during random ticks, and an egg hatches once it has cracked 3 times. When a multi-egg block hatches, all eggs within the block hatch simultaneously. Eggs grow fastest during the night and typically take 4 to 5 in-game days to hatch. See Turtle egg#Hatching for more details.

Babies[]

With a height of 0.12 blocks, baby turtles are among the smallest mobs in the game. Baby turtles are small enough that when they walk on soul sand, they are entirely within the space at the top of the block and therefore suffocate in it, much like endermites and silverfish.

Upon hatching, baby turtles search for the nearest water block within a 47×1×47 region two blocks below the turtle and attempt to approach it.

Baby turtles take one Minecraft day to grow up (20 minutes). The growth can be accelerated using seagrass. Each use reduces the remaining growth duration by 10%. Upon becoming an adult, the turtle drops a scute.

Sounds[]

Turtles use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Turtle chirps Friendly Creatures Randomly on land entity.turtle.ambient_land subtitles.entity.turtle.ambient_land ? ? 16
Turtle dies Friendly Creatures When an adult turtle dies entity.turtle.death subtitles.entity.turtle.death ? ? 16
Turtle baby dies Friendly Creatures When a baby turtle dies entity.turtle.death_baby subtitles.entity.turtle.death_baby ? ? 16
Turtle hurts Friendly Creatures When an adult turtle is damaged entity.turtle.hurt subtitles.entity.turtle.hurt ? ? 16
Turtle baby hurts Friendly Creatures When a baby turtle is damaged entity.turtle.hurt_baby subtitles.entity.turtle.hurt_baby ? ? 16
Turtle lays egg Friendly Creatures When a turtle lays an egg entity.turtle.lay_egg subtitles.entity.turtle.lay_egg ? ? 16
Turtle swims Friendly Creatures Randomly while swimming entity.turtle.swim subtitles.entity.turtle.swim ? ? 16
Turtle shambles Friendly Creatures While an adult turtle is walking on land entity.turtle.shamble subtitles.entity.turtle.shamble ? ? 16
Turtle baby shambles Friendly Creatures While a baby turtle is walking on land entity.turtle.shamble_baby subtitles.entity.turtle.shamble_baby ? ? 16

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
Turtle turtle entity.minecraft.turtle

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Turtle turtle 74 entity.turtle.name

Entity data[]

Turtles have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

  • Entity data
    •  HasEgg: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the turtle has an egg.
    •  HomePosX: The X coordinate the turtle travels toward to lay its eggs after breeding.
    •  HomePosY: The Y coordinate the turtle travels toward to lay its eggs after breeding.
    •  HomePosZ: The Z coordinate the turtle travels toward to lay its eggs after breeding.
    •  TravelPosX: Used for swimming to random points in water.
    •  TravelPosY: Used for swimming to random points in water.
    •  TravelPosZ: Used for swimming to random points in water.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
The Parrots and the Bats
Breed two animals together Husbandry Breed a pair of any of these 23 mobs:

  • Axolotl
  • Bee
  • Cat
  • Chicken
  • Cow
  • Donkey
  • Fox
  • Frog
  • Goat
  • Hoglin
  • Horse
  • Llama
  • Mooshroom
  • Mule
  • Ocelot
  • Panda
  • Pig
  • Rabbit
  • Sheep
  • Strider
  • Trader Llama
  • Turtle
  • Wolf

A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.
husbandry/breed_an_animal

History[]

August 17, 2012On Reddit, Jeb was asked "I asked at pax about turtles, any work done about those?" and replied "No... I saw Mo' Creatures' turtles and got a bit demotivated to do my own ones. Maybe later..."
September 19, 2012In a Reddit post anticipating the addition of another animal mob (which turned out to be the bat in 12w38a), Jeb replied to confirm that it would not be a turtle: "The truth is that I'll maybe end up adding turtles one day, it's just that Mo's turtles are difficult to top."
December 26, 2017
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
Turtle mobs were announced at Minecraft.net.
Java Edition
1.1318w07a
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
Added turtles and baby turtles.
18w07bTurtles are now bred using seagrass, instead of raw cod.
18w11aAdded drowned, which attack baby turtles.
1.1418w44aAdded stray cats, which attack baby turtles.
19w07aAdded foxes, which attack baby turtles.
1.1519w39a
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
Due to a bug, the baby turtle and turtle models are currently broken.[4]
19w40aThe turtle models have been fixed.
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0beta 1.5.0.4
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
Added turtles (named sea turtles) and baby turtles.
1.8.0beta 1.8.0.8Added stray cats, which attack baby turtles.
1.13.0beta 1.13.0.1Added foxes, which attack baby turtles.
1.16.100beta 1.16.100.51Sea turtles now play a sound when they lay eggs.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69 1.76 Patch 38
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft
Added sea turtles and baby sea turtles.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Turtle" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A baby turtle moving on the beach after being hatched.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A turtle moving on land.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A turtle swimming in a small pool of water.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A wolf attacking a group of baby turtles.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    More turtles with eggs.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A turtle picked up by a boat.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A large number of turtles in an artificial lake.

Developer screenshots[]

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    The first released screenshot of a turtle.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    A baby turtle on top of the head of an adult.

In other media[]

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

    Official turtle artwork.

  • How to get a baby turtle in Minecraft

References[]

  1. MC-125562 resolved as "Works as Intended"
  2. MC-125629 resolved as "Works as Intended"
  3. MC-137306 – Turtles don't have breeding delay
  4. MC-161858

How long does it take to get a baby turtle in Minecraft?

When a multi-egg block hatches, all eggs within the block hatch simultaneously. Eggs grow fastest during the night and typically take 4 to 5 in-game days to hatch.

How do you make turtle babies in Minecraft?

How to Breed Turtles in Minecraft.
Now that you have the seagrass, go to two turtles and feed them and the turtles will enter love mode. ... .
Once it goes there, it'll lay a few eggs. ... .
While you wait make sure you build a secure animal farm for the baby turtles, because a lot of mobs will try to kill them when they're babies..