Frogs arrived in the Wild Update and quickly became one of the most loved mobs in Minecraft. They hop around swamps, croak on lily pads, and have a party trick: they eat small slimes and magma cubes with a long sticky tongue. When a frog eats a magma cube, it drops a glowing froglight block. This guide explains what frogs eat in Minecraft, how to breed frogs, how tadpoles grow up, how to get each of the three frog colors, and how to build a froglight farm.
Quick answer: what do frogs eat?
- Hunting: frogs attack and eat the smallest slimes and the smallest magma cubes.
- Breeding: you feed frogs slimeballs to make them breed.
- Bonus: a frog that eats a small magma cube drops a froglight. The color depends on the frog.
Frogs do not eat seeds, fish or any crop. Slimeballs are the only food you can give them by hand.
Where to find frogs
Frogs spawn in swamps and mangrove swamps, usually near water and lily pads. They are passive toward players, so you can walk right up to them. If you cannot find any, look for tadpoles in swamp water and raise them yourself, or catch tadpoles in a bucket elsewhere and bring them home.
How to breed frogs in Minecraft
- Get at least two slimeballs. Slimes drop them when killed, and they spawn in swamps at night and in slime chunks underground. Wandering traders sometimes sell slimeballs too.
- Find two adult frogs, or lead them into a pen near water. Hold a slimeball and frogs follow you.
- Feed each frog one slimeball. Hearts appear above them.
- One frog becomes pregnant and looks for water. It jumps in and lays frogspawn on the surface of a water block that has air above it.
- After a few minutes, the frogspawn hatches into several tadpoles.
The parents must wait a few minutes before they can breed again. Make sure the pen has a pool of still water at least one block deep, with open air above, so the frog has somewhere to lay its spawn.
How tadpoles grow up
- Tadpoles live in water and die if they are out of water for too long.
- They take about 20 minutes to grow into frogs.
- Feeding a tadpole slimeballs makes it grow faster.
- You can pick up a tadpole with a water bucket, making a bucket of tadpole that you can carry anywhere.
- Axolotls hunt tadpoles, so keep them apart.
How to get each frog color
A frog’s variant is decided by the biome where the tadpole grows up, not where its parents came from. That means you can choose the color by moving tadpoles in buckets.
| Frog | Color | Grows in | Froglight it drops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperate frog | Orange | Most biomes, such as swamps, plains and forests | Ochre froglight (yellow) |
| Warm frog | White | Warm biomes such as deserts, jungles, savannas, badlands and mangrove swamps | Pearlescent froglight (pink) |
| Cold frog | Green | Cold biomes such as snowy plains, ice spikes, frozen oceans and snowy taigas | Verdant froglight (green) |
To collect all three froglights you need all three frogs. Carry tadpoles in buckets to a warm and a cold biome, release them in water there, and wait for them to grow.
How frogs hunt
A frog shoots its tongue at a small slime or a small magma cube within range, swallows it and moves on. Frogs only eat the smallest size, so you need to kill bigger slimes and magma cubes until they split into small ones, or let the frogs wait near a slime spawn. Frogs also take less fall damage than other mobs and jump high, so a pen needs walls at least two blocks tall.
How to farm froglights
Froglights are bright light blocks with a light level of 15 and a soft, colorful glow, loved by builders. The only way to get them is a frog eating a small magma cube.
- Raise or catch one frog of each color.
- Bring them to the Nether, or bring small magma cubes to them by leading them with care. The easiest farms are built in basalt deltas, where magma cubes spawn often.
- Build a platform where magma cubes spawn and push them, with water or by letting them hop, toward an area where the frogs wait.
- Large magma cubes split into small ones when hit. Frogs eat the small ones.
- Collect the dropped froglights with hoppers.
Frogs never eat large or medium magma cubes, and large magma cubes can hurt them, so give the frogs a safe area behind glass or a gap the big cubes cannot cross.
Frog facts
- Health: 10 (5 hearts).
- Behavior: passive to players, hunts small slimes and magma cubes.
- Drops: nothing when killed, except experience. Froglights only come from hunting.
- Sounds: frogs croak, especially near water and on lily pads.
- Leads: frogs can be put on a lead to move them.
Frogs in Java vs Bedrock
Frogs work almost the same in both editions. Breeding with slimeballs, tadpoles, the three variants and froglights are identical. Small differences exist in how far frogs see prey and how easily they jump out of pens, so if a design does not hold frogs in your edition, add another block of wall height.
Tips for keeping frogs
- Build a pond with lily pads, mangrove roots and mud for a natural frog habitat.
- Name your frogs with name tags so they never despawn by accident and you can tell them apart.
- Keep a bucket of tadpoles in storage as a backup.
- Use slime farms in slime chunks to collect slimeballs for breeding and for leads and sticky pistons.
FAQ
What do frogs eat in Minecraft?
Frogs eat small slimes and small magma cubes. You can only feed them slimeballs by hand.
How do you breed frogs in Minecraft?
Feed two adult frogs a slimeball each. One will lay frogspawn on water, which hatches into tadpoles.
How do you get a white or green frog?
Let a tadpole grow up in a warm biome for a white frog, or in a cold biome for a green frog.
How do you get froglights?
Let a frog eat a small magma cube. Each frog color drops a different froglight.
How long do tadpoles take to grow?
About 20 minutes. Feeding them slimeballs speeds it up.
Checked by the Game Respawned editorial team against the current Java and Bedrock versions. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.