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.

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

Breeding[]

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

//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_idle1.ogg	Turtle chirps	Friendly Creatures	Randomly on land	entity.turtle.ambient_land	subtitles.entity.turtle.ambient_land	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_death2.ogg	Turtle dies	Friendly Creatures	When an adult turtle dies	entity.turtle.death	subtitles.entity.turtle.death	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Baby_turtle_death2.ogg	Turtle baby dies	Friendly Creatures	When a baby turtle dies	entity.turtle.death_baby	subtitles.entity.turtle.death_baby	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_hurt1.ogg	Turtle hurts	Friendly Creatures	When an adult turtle is damaged	entity.turtle.hurt	subtitles.entity.turtle.hurt	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Baby_turtle_hurt1.ogg	Turtle baby hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a baby turtle is damaged	entity.turtle.hurt_baby	subtitles.entity.turtle.hurt_baby	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_lay_egg1.ogg	Turtle lays egg	Friendly Creatures	When a turtle lays an egg	entity.turtle.lay_egg	subtitles.entity.turtle.lay_egg	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_swim1.ogg	Turtle swims	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while swimming	entity.turtle.swim	subtitles.entity.turtle.swim	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Turtle_step1.ogg	Turtle shambles	Friendly Creatures	While an adult turtle is walking on land	entity.turtle.shamble	subtitles.entity.turtle.shamble	?	?	16
//minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Baby_turtle_step1.ogg	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

	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, 2012September 19, 2012December 26, 2017Java Edition1.1318w07a18w07b18w11a1.1418w44a19w07a1.1519w39a19w40aBedrock Edition1.5.0beta 1.5.0.41.8.0beta 1.8.0.81.13.0beta 1.13.0.11.16.100beta 1.16.100.51Legacy Console EditionTU69 1.76 Patch 38

On 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..."

In 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."

Turtle mobs were announced at Minecraft.net.

Added turtles and baby turtles.

Turtles are now bred using seagrass, instead of raw cod.

Added drowned, which attack baby turtles.

Added stray cats, which attack baby turtles.

Added foxes, which attack baby turtles.

Due to a bug, the baby turtle and turtle models are currently broken.[4]

The turtle models have been fixed.

Added turtles (named sea turtles) and baby turtles.

Added stray cats, which attack baby turtles.

Added foxes, which attack baby turtles.

Sea turtles now play a sound when they lay eggs.

Added sea turtles and baby sea turtles.

Issues[]

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

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

• A baby turtle moving on the beach after being hatched.

• A turtle moving on land.

• A turtle swimming in a small pool of water.

• A wolf attacking a group of baby turtles.

• More turtles with eggs.

• A turtle picked up by a boat.

• A large number of turtles in an artificial lake.

Developer screenshots[]

• The first released screenshot of a turtle.

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

In other media[]

• Official turtle artwork.

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?

How do you make turtle babies in Minecraft?