Can you tame Dolphins in Minecraft?

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Dolphins are one of the most adorable neutral mobs in all of Minecraft. They even give the wolves and ocelots of the game a run for their money! If you want to keep some aquatic friends around, a good way to go about it is to feed them. In this guide, we’re going to take a look at Minecraft Dolphins’ unique behaviours, what to feed them, and even how to use them to find treasure!

What do Minecraft Dolphins eat?

The first thing to note is that dolphins exclusively eat raw cod and raw salmon for their diet. Seeing as dolphins only exist in ocean biomes and these are the most common fish around them, it makes sense that this is the sort of food they would want to eat.

However, dolphins in the wild will never eat cooked fish, so there’s no point trying to feed it to them in Minecraft. They only want the raw stuff!

Just like other Minecraft mobs, you can simply feed a Dolphin by clicking the ‘use’ button on one with a raw fish in your main hand. You’ll hear a brief munching sound to indicate that the dolphin has taken your food – that, and one will disappear from your inventory. Unlike other Minecraft mobs, though, this won’t tame a Dolphin, cause them to enter “Love Mode”, and they won’t follow you when you’re holding a fish in your hand. Instead, you should follow it!

Minecraft Dolphin behaviours – treasure hunters!

So, while you can’t tame a Minecraft Dolphin – they’re wild creatures, and should be left as such, so it makes sense – you can befriend them. Then, you can even use them to your advantage thanks to their very unique treasure-seeking behaviours. Feeding Dolphins raw fish will get them to trust you, increasing their trust level the more you feed them, so don’t be offended when they swim away from you. Instead, go after them, as your new friend is leading you to treasure! A well-fed Dolphin will swim to loot chests in Shipwrecks, Buried Treasure or Ocean Ruins. Since they path find to the chests themselves, once you destroy the chest, your aquatic pal will lead you on to the next if you keep feeding it!

Dolphins can also be tethered on a lead, so you can make sure you don’t lose your way if you have a lead in your inventory when you go treasure hunting with Dophins.

Aside from the great benefit of leading you to buried treasure, dolphins are also useful for giving you a speed boost while swimming. This effect works whether you’re with near tame dolphins, baby dolphins, and regardless of the amount of fish fed to the dolphin.

All you need to do is swim up close to a dolphin or group of dolphins and sprint swim while underwater. You should then receive a status effect called Dolphin’s Grace, indicated by a dolphin icon in the top right hand of your screen for the duration. Dolphin’s Grace gives you a brief speed boost and allows you to cover great distances underwater in a matter of seconds.

And yet another unique behaviour of Dolphins is mostly useless, sometimes frustrating and entirely adorable. They love to play! Just like the adorable and playful nature of dolphins in real life, Minecraft Dolphins will play with any items they may find floating around in the ocean, so drop anything on the surface of the water, and they’ll start tossing it around, throwing it between themselves if their are multiple dolphins in the pod. Where this can be frustrating is if you die in or near the ocean and your items end up in the sea, you may find they are strewn far and wide when you return. However, it’s such a cute trait you’ll likely find you don’t mind!

Where Can You Get Dolphin Food In Minecraft?

As we’ve already established, Dolphins live off a diet of nothing but Raw Cod and Raw Salmon. This makes things pretty easy when it comes to knowing what to feed them but only if you know how to get a hold of it yourself.

To get raw fish, the easiest method is simply fishing. You can craft a Fishing Rod with three Sticks and two pieces of String, then cast it out into the ocean and wait for a bite. Raw fish are the most common of fishing loot, so expect to gather plenty – and even some bonus treasure, too!

Where to find Dolphins

Dolphins can be found spawning pretty commonly in any Ocean biome except cold and frozen oceans. In fact, they will even spawn in deep oceans, so you should be able to find one pretty easily, but while they swim around freely, they only spawn initially between Y-levels 50 and 64.

Hopefully, you folks have enjoyed our guide to feeding and befriending dolphins. These curious little creatures really do brighten up any Minecraft world, so there’s no harm in feeding them occasionally as a reward. Of course, if you do, you’ll also be rewarded with directions to the nearest Shipwreck. Talk about a win-win situation!

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And head over to our Minecraft hub for even more news, guides and how-tos!