5 reasons why your villagers are not breeding in Minecraft

Villagers are Minecraft mobs that are closest to humans in terms of behavior. They live peacefully in their villages, sleep at night, have different jobs, and can trade with players with emeralds. Along with all this, they can mate with one another as well. However, breeding villagers might be tricky for beginners.

Unlike other mobs, villagers can only breed when several conditions are met. If even one of them is not fulfilled, they will not give rise to an offspring. Those who are new to the game might have difficulties breeding them if they don't know what the favorable conditions are. Here are some reasons why villagers might not breed in Minecraft.

Note: If none of the following reasons apply to your case, there is a chance a glitch or bug might be at play.

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5 possible reasons why Minecraft villagers are not breeding

1) Not enough food items for villagers

Villagers need to have at least 12 food items on them to enter breeding mode in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Villagers have a tendency to pick up food items that are thrown towards them. This is one of the conditions that enables them to breed with one another. To enter "willing" or "love" mode, each villager needs to have atleast 12 "food" in their own inventory.

Hence, one of the reasons for breeding not occurring can be less food. If players are giving them bread, each villager must have at least three pieces of it. In case of anything else, they must have 12 of them.

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2) Population cap (Bedrock Edition only)

If the population is more than a certain amount, villagers will not breed in Minecraft Bedrock Edition (Image via Mojang)

In Bedrock Edition, there can only be a certain number of villagers in a village. If the maximum number is reached, they will not breed with each other. This could also be a possible reason why they are not multiplying.

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3) Wrong time of day

Villagers will not breed during night time in Minecraft (Image via CurseForge)

Another possible reason could be the wrong time of day. Villagers can detect the time of day and change their behavior accordingly. One of these involves entering the "willing mode" or not. As they will not breed during the night, players must be sure to give them enough food during the day so that they successfully breed.

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4) Breeding cooldown

After breeding, villagers enter a cooldown period where they cannot breed in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

To stop players from continuously multiplying mobs, the game applies a cooldown period right after one successful breeding occurs. This also applies to villagers since they will not be able to mate for a few minutes. The cooldown timer is five minutes, forcing gamers to focus on some other tasks or wait for a while.

Alternatively, players can strategically breed multiple villagers so that others are free to mate while some are in their cooldown period. However, this will require capturing many villagers.

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5) No unclaimed beds

Beds might also cause breeding problems for villagers in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Beds are extremely important to villagers since they sleep at night and essentially claim them as players do. Even though they do not use beds while breeding, they are a necessity. First, players must ensure that there are extra beds for both the breeding villagers and the new baby that will spawn.

Secondly, beds must have at least two blocks of space above them so that adult villagers can stand and babies can jump on them.