Donkey

Donkeys are variants of horses that, when tamed, can be ridden and equipped with chests.

Spawning

1-3 donkeys spawn in plains and only 1 in savannas. Donkeys also spawn in meadows. 20% of the individual donkeys spawn as foals.

Bedrock Edition

2-6 donkeys spawn only in plains at light level 7 or above.^[1]

Appearance

Adult donkeys are 1.4 blocks wide and long, and 1.6 blocks high. Foals start at half the size of adults and in Bedrock Edition, get progressively bigger as they age. Unlike wolves and cats, the appearances of donkeys do not change once they have been tamed, though tamed donkeys may be differentiated by giving them equipment.

Donkeys are smaller all around than the normal horses and sport long, erect ears. Their manes do not protrude, but rather are drawn directly on the back of their heads and necks. All donkeys have gray-brown coats with darker ankles, ears, manes, and tails. Donkeys can be equipped with a simple saddle, not the full covered armor and they can also be equipped with chests to store up to 15 stacks of items.

Unlike almost all other mobs, donkeys with equipped saddles or chests do not render these when under the effect of Invisibility.^[2]

Drops

Upon death, donkeys drop:

• 0–2 Leather. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 with Looting III.
• 1–3, when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

If equipped with a chest or saddle, they drop those items. They also drop the contents of the chest.

Upon successful breeding, 1–7 is dropped.

Killing a baby donkey yields no items nor experience.

Usage

Tamed and saddled donkeys are some of the fastest means of transportation or hauling in the game, although they are unable to fit through single block-wide openings. They can also be used to climb hills and jump fences, which the player can't generally.

Donkeys cannot float on water when being controlled by a player. They can be ridden in water up to 2 blocks deep. In deeper water, the player is automatically dismounted.^[3]

Donkeys can be equipped with chests and used as pack animals. They can also be pulled along and tied up using a lead.

Equipment

Tamed donkeys can have the following slot available:

• Saddle Slot: For equipping a saddle.
• An additional 15 inventory slots, provided the donkey has been equipped with a chest.

Equipment can be placed on a donkey by holding left shift and then using on the donkey, or by accessing its inventory. A donkey’s inventory can be accessed by mounting the donkey and using inventory control, or by sneaking and then using or pressing the "open inventory" button‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} on the donkey.

A donkey can be equipped with a chest by using a chest on a donkey. The chest cannot be removed except by killing the donkey, which causes the chest and its contents to drop.

Foals cannot be equipped with anything.

Riding

Once a donkey is tamed and saddled, the player can control it with the standard directional controls, jump, and the mouse. The player dismounts using the dismount control. Like riding other entities, it is impossible for a player to use a nether portal or end portal while on a donkey.

A ridden saddled donkey automatically runs up any one block high slope. The donkey and rider can safely fit through a space as low as 2.75 blocks high. Lower clearance risks suffocating the rider if the rider's head enters a non-transparent block. The donkey itself can enter gaps as low as 1.625 blocks high, but may itself take suffocation damage when clearance is less than 1.75 blocks. They cannot fit through a 1-block-wide gap.

Unlike horses, all spawned donkeys have the same movement speed and jump strength, although speed potions can be used on the donkey and travel via the Nether can make the donkey easily the pack animal with the fastest practical way to travel in Minecraft. Donkeys are slow-moving backward, and about as fast as the player when moving sideways.

Ridden saddled donkeys have the ability of "jumping charging". When the player rides them, the experience bar on HUD is replaced by jumping charging bar. A ridden saddled donkey can be made to jump and holding the control charges for a higher leap. Donkeys are not affected by jump boost beacons or potions.

Behavior

Donkeys roam around idly, occasionally stopping to rear, swish their tails, or lower their heads as though eating the grass. Unlike sheep, the eating animation does not actually cause any grass to be consumed. A donkey may turn to look at a player who comes near. Any donkey, even a wild one, allows itself to be attached to a lead without protest. However, if the player attempts to saddle an untamed donkey, it rears and flails its front hooves. Donkeys remain passive, even when hit.

Donkeys occasionally emit an audible braying sound.

Adult Donkeys, unlike most mobs, cannot ride in a minecart and boat. Foals, however, can. Unlike other passive mobs, donkeys slowly regenerate health.

Taming

Adult donkeys can be tamed. With an empty hand, mount it repeatedly; when it shows hearts and no longer bucks the player, it is tamed. It is necessary to tame a donkey in order to breed it, give it equipment, or ride it for any length of time.

Taming depends on the donkey's "temper". They begin with a temper of 0 out of 100. When a player is riding the donkey, a random number between 0 and 99 is chosen. The donkey becomes tame if this number is less than the temper, otherwise, the temper is increased by 5 and the player is bucked off. Temper can also be increased by feeding the donkey.

While riding an untamed donkey, a galloping sound is audible, more or less rapid. This gives a general idea of the donkey's speed. It is unknown whether there is any indication of jump height before taming.

Like all tamed animals, a death message is displayed to their owner if they are killed.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Breeding

Feeding tamed donkeys golden apples or golden carrots activates love mode.

The offspring appear more spindly than their adult versions and grow progressively larger with time until they reach their full size. The offspring do not automatically belong to the player who owns their parents. Rather, it is born as an untamed donkey and must be tamed after it grows into an adult. The foal can be fed to make it mature faster.

Breeding two donkeys creates a donkey foal. Because all donkeys have the same texture, the offspring looks exactly like its parents when it is fully grown.

Cross-breeding a donkey with a horse creates a mule foal. Mules cannot breed.

Food

Feeding a donkey food may alter its behavior and cause it to grow (if it is not yet an adult; foals normally take 20 minutes to fully mature if not fed), and restore its health. To feed a donkey, hold a valid food item and press use while looking at it. If the food is invalid, the action is treated as an attempt to mount the donkey. Donkeys can be fed only when feeding would have an effect, similar to other animals. The table below lists the effects of the various foods donkeys can consume.

Food	Heals	Speeds growth by	Increases temper	Notes
Sugar	1	30 sec	+3
Wheat	2	20 sec	+3
Apple	3	1 min	+3
Golden Carrot	4	1 min	+5	Activates love mode in tamed donkey.
Golden Apple	10	4 min	+10	Activates love mode in tamed donkey. Enchanted golden apples also work.
Hay Bale	20 × 10	3 min	N/A	Hay bales cannot be fed to untamed adult donkey.

Statistics

All donkeys have three "equine stats" that vary between donkeys: health, (maximum) movement speed, and jump strength. These stats are created once the donkey is born or spawned, and are not affected by food.

Spawned values

When spawned in any way except breeding – for instance, using commands, spawning naturally, spawning as part of a skeleton trap, or using spawn eggs – donkeys are assigned their stats within certain ranges, specific according to their horse type.

Health

Donkey's health ranges from 15–30, but tends toward the average 22–23. Displayed hearts are health, divided by two, rounded down. A donkey with an odd number of health points (15, 17, 19, etc.) does not display the last half-heart. If the donkey has lost one fewer health point than the inflicted damage and did not regenerate, it has an odd number of health points, otherwise, it has an even number of health points.

Movement speed

A spawned donkey's speed value is always 0.175, but it only moves at the slightly reduced 7.38 blocks/sec. For reference, the player's normal walking speed is 0.1, equivalent to 4.3 blocks/sec. and the player's sprinting speed is equivalent to 5.6 blocks/sec. The speed listed does not include any status effect that affects the speed of a horse or a player.

A bred donkey's speed value has the same limits as other horses, between 0.1125 and 0.3375. See Horse#Movement speed.

See transportation to compare the speeds of various transportation methods.

Jump strength

A spawned donkey's jump strength is always 0.5, enough to clear 1 ⁹⁄₁₆ blocks. A bred donkey's jump strength has the same limits as other horses, between 0.4 and 1.0. See Tutorials/Horses#Speed.

Bred values

When breeding two donkeys, the foal's stats are determined by a variation of the average of both parents' stats, randomly determined the same way horses' stats are.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Donkeys use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Donkey hee-haws	Friendly Creatures	Randomly	entity.donkey.ambient	subtitles.entity.donkey.ambient	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	Donkey neighs	Friendly Creatures	When a player is bucked off by a donkey or fails to interact with a donkey	entity.donkey.angry	subtitles.entity.donkey.angry	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	Donkey Chest equips	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey equips a chest	entity.donkey.chest	subtitles.entity.donkey.chest	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Donkey dies	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey dies	entity.donkey.death	subtitles.entity.donkey.death	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	Donkey eats	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey eats an item	entity.donkey.eat	subtitles.entity.donkey.eat	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Horse jumps[sound 1]	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey begins a leap	entity.horse.jump[sound 1]	subtitles.entity.horse.jump[sound 1]	0.4	1.0	16
	Something fell	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey falls from more than 1 block	entity.horse.land	subtitles.entity.generic.big_fall	0.4	1.0	16
	Donkey hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey is damaged	entity.donkey.hurt	subtitles.entity.donkey.hurt	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	Footsteps	Friendly Creatures	While a donkey is walking	entity.horse.step	subtitles.generic.block.footsteps	Block-Dependent	Block-Dependent	16
	Footsteps	Friendly Creatures	While a donkey is walking on wood	entity.horse.step_wood	subtitles.generic.block.footsteps	Block-Dependent	Block-Dependent	16
	Saddle equips	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey equips a saddle	entity.horse.saddle	subtitles.entity.horse.saddle	0.5	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly	mob.horse.donkey.idle	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	When a player is bucked off by a donkey	mob.horse.donkey.angry	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event[sound 1]	mob.horse.armor	0.6	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey equips a chest	mob.horse.armor	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event[sound 1]	mob.horse.breath	0.7	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey dies	mob.horse.donkey.death	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey eats an item	mob.horse.eat	0.5-1.5	0.8-1.2
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey begins a leap	mob.horse.jump	0.4	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey falls from more than 1 block	mob.horse.land	0.4	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey is damaged	mob.horse.donkey.hit	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	While a donkey is walking	mob.horse.soft	0.45	0.9-1.1
	Friendly Creatures	While a donkey is walking on wood[sound 2]	mob.horse.wood	0.45	0.9-1.1
	Friendly Creatures	When a donkey equips a saddle	mob.horse.leather	0.5	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Donkey	donkey	entity.minecraft.donkey

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Donkey	donkey	24	entity.donkey.name

Entity data

Donkeys have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other
		Saddle Up	Tame a horse.	—	20G	Bronze
		Artificial Selection	Breed a mule from a horse and a donkey.	—	30G	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer 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 breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Best Friends Forever	Tame an animal	Husbandry	Tame one of these 8 tameable mobs: Cat Donkey Horse Llama Mule Parrot Trader Llama Wolf	husbandry/tame_an_animal
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed a pair of each of these 25 mobs: Armadillo Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/bred_all_animals

Video

History

Java Edition
1.6.1		13w16a			Added donkeys, assisted by DrZhark (John Olarte), creator of the Mo' Creatures mod, whose horses are a baseline for Minecraft's donkey models.[4]
		13w16b			Donkeys have been made slower and they have been reduced from gliding so much.
		13w18a			Horse saddles have been removed. Donkeys are now controlled using the saddle.
		13w19a			Access to the donkey inventory by sneaking and interacting has been enabled.
		13w21a			Added a new GUI for donkeys, to control their saddle and inventory.
		13w22a			Added new sound effects for donkeys.
1.7.2		13w36a			Donkeys now spawn in savannas.
1.8		14w26c			Donkeys can no longer be fed bread for taming, healing, or growing.
					Wheat's acceleration of baby donkey growth has been reduced.
1.9		15w47b			Added sounds for donkeys eating food given by a player.
1.10		16w20a			Added a donkey spawn egg.
		pre2			The donkey spawn egg has been removed.
1.11		16w32a			Donkeys now have a separate ID from horses: donkey.
					The donkey spawn egg has been re-added.
1.13		17w45a			The models of donkeys have been changed.
		17w46a			The new models of donkeys have been slightly tweaked.
		18w03a			The models of donkeys have been changed again and the textures have been slightly altered.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of donkeys has been changed. The color channel of transparent pixels are now filled to black.
		18w43b			The texture of donkeys has been changed. However, some pixels are missing.
		18w44a			The textures of donkeys have been changed. The missing pixels from 18w43b have been fixed.
1.16		20w15a			Tamed donkeys can now be saddled by dispensers.
					Dispensers can now put chests on tamed donkeys.
1.18		Experimental Snapshot 1			Donkeys now spawn in the newly added meadows.
		experimental snapshot 2			Donkeys now spawn less frequently in meadows.
		experimental snapshot 6			Donkeys now follow players that are holding golden carrots, golden apples, or enchanted golden apples.
1.19.4		23w03a			The texture of the donkey has been changed.
		23w07a			The speed, jump height and health of a baby is now a variation of the average of the parents' attributes, rather than being biased towards the average possible value.
1.20 (Experimental)		23w07a			Donkey now spawn in cherry groves.
		1.19.4-pre1			Donkey no longer spawn in cherry groves.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0		build 1			Added donkeys.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.6		beta 1.2.6.2			The models of donkeys have been changed to the 1.13 donkey models.
1.2.9					Donkeys no longer open their mouths when bucking the player off or taking damage.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of donkeys have been changed.
1.20.10		beta 1.20.10.20			Donkeys now can be fed with golden carrots or enchanted golden apples.
					Donkeys now follow players that are holding golden carrots or enchanted golden apples.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added donkeys.
TU22	CU10	1.15			Added quick move to the donkey inventory.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Baby donkey growth can now be accelerated using wheat.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Added sounds for donkeys.
TU60	CU51	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	The models of donkeys have been changed to the 1.13 donkey models.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added donkeys.

Issues

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

Trivia

• If a player picks up leather dropped by an adult donkey, they receive the "Cow Tipper" achievement. This is due to the achievement being given when a player picks up any piece of leather instead of being given when killing a cow.
• A player riding a donkey is dragged along if the donkey is being pulled by a lead, and can even be lifted up in the air in the same way.
• Using commands, it is possible to make a donkey with no armor slot, but also no way to equip a chest.
• In the Bedrock Edition, the donkey can be transported in a boat by riding the donkey and jumping into the boat then dismounting (leaving the donkey behind in the boat) and activating the boat from underneath/underwater. Attempting to activate the boat to pilot it from above results in the player being mounted on the donkey again rather than being placed inside the boat to pilot it.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  The first image of the donkey chest inventory.^[5]

• 

  A donkey and a mule.

• 

  A herd of donkeys and horses spawned next to each other.

In other media

• 

  LEGO Minecraft Donkey.

See also

• Horse
• Zombie Horse
• Skeleton Horse
• Mule
• Llama

References