Donkey
passiveTameableBreedableOurs, not the game's own: how a donkey behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: groups of 1 on Java against 1 to 3 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
The Donkey is a passive mob in Minecraft, which means it will never attack a player and simply goes about its own behaviour.
You will normally come across donkeys in the Overworld, where they appear in Plains, Sunflower Plains, and Meadow.
What sets it apart is its behaviour: similar to horses but slower.
Stat-wise it sits at 15 to 30 health (7.5 to 15 hearts), dropping 1 to 3 experience on death.
The Donkey has been part of the game since version 1.6.1.
One thing worth knowing: Health ranges from 15 to 30 HP.
For many players the appeal of the Donkey is companionship: once tamed it becomes a loyal helper rather than just scenery.
Spawning
Donkeys spawn in Plains, Sunflower Plains, and Meadow.
Because it appears across 6 different biomes, it is one of the easier mobs to track down, and heading to any of them should turn one up before long.
Spawns on grass blocks, rarer than horses, in herds of 1-3.
Spawns commonly come in batches of 1-3, which is worth remembering when you are deciding whether to engage or retreat.
Left alone far from any player, wild donkeys eventually despawn, so use a name tag if you want a specific one to stick around.
Because it is harmless, the Donkey is mostly useful as a renewable source of its drops, and you can let a small population breed up over time.
Another mob's spawn rule points back at it: the mule, bred from a horse and a donkey.
Where the Donkey spawns
Meadow is where it stands strongest: weight 1 on the creature list and 20% of it, arriving 1 to 3 at a time. There it shares the list with Rabbit at 2 and Sheep at 2, 5 weight together, of which 1 is donkey. The other 5 biomes on its list run from 2.2% down to 1.5%.
| Biome | Weight | Share | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
 Meadow | 1 | 20% | 1 to 2 |
 Plains | 1 | 2.2% | 1 to 3 |
 Sunflower Plains | 1 | 2.2% | 1 to 3 |
 Savanna | 1 | 1.9% | 1 |
 Windswept Savanna | 1 | 1.9% | 1 |
 Savanna Plateau | 1 | 1.5% | 1 |
Drops
Killing a Donkey produces the following loot:
Nothing here is guaranteed: a kill can give you 0 to 2 Leather.
In terms of experience, each kill is worth 1 to 3 XP orbs.
Leather from donkeys is renewable, so a small breeding setup keeps you supplied indefinitely.
With nothing guaranteed, output is swingy: over many kills the averages hold, but any single Donkey may give you little, so farm in volume rather than expecting a jackpot each time.
Because the Donkey is harmless and breeds, the efficient long-term approach is a small enclosed pen where a breeding pair keeps replacing what you harvest, rather than hunting wild ones down one by one.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leather | 0 to 2 | not every kill | Looting III up to 5 |
Donkey attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Health | 15 to 30 points |
 Size | 1.396 x 1.5 blocks |
 Eye height | 1.425 blocks |
 Tracking range | 10 chunks |
| Follow range | 32 blocks |
 Movement speed | 0.175 |
 Experience | 1 to 3 |
Its health is not fixed: each one starts at 15 and adds two rolls when it spawns, one of 0 to 7 and one of 0 to 8.
The Donkey does not stand alone on these numbers: the llama on the same 0.175 movement speed and the trader llama at that same figure.
Donkey: 0.45% of its category, rank 44 of 52
On 6 of the 66 biome lists (6 spawn entries in total), and 0.45% of every spawn the game puts in its creature group is a donkey.
A donkey averages 1 Leather a kill on the rolls Minecraft Java 26.2 makes for it, before Looting, which puts a full stack of 64 Leather at 64 kills.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 Leather | 1 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Leather |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 8 | 512 |
 stone sword | 5 | 6 | 384 |
 iron sword | 6 | 5 | 320 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 5 | 320 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 4 | 256 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 4 | 256 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 3 | 192 |
Those same figures also describe the horse and mule. Where a donkey parts company is how often the biome files name them: 6 spawn entries here, 5 spawn entries for the horse and 0 spawn entries for the mule, counted over the spawn lists.
Behavior & Combat
Behaviourally, similar to horses but slower. Can be equipped with a chest for 15 inventory slots. Cannot wear horse armor.
It notices a target from 32 blocks, 10th of 88 for follow range, with the zombified piglin its nearest at 35.
Because it never attacks, you are in no danger from it directly; the Donkey simply goes about its routine.
You can tame the Donkey: repeatedly mount the donkey until hearts appear, same as horses.
To breed them, hand Golden Apple to a pair of adults; they enter love mode and a baby Donkey appears, maturing in roughly twenty minutes.
Bottom line: tame one and the Donkey stops being an obstacle and becomes an asset you will want to protect.
Donkey commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:donkey | Puts a donkey on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:donkey_spawn_egg | Hands you the donkey spawn egg, so you can place donkeys where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:donkey] | Removes every donkey that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:donkey, spawn egg minecraft:donkey_spawn_egg.
Donkey farm
A donkey farm copies the rule the game already uses for donkey spawns. Spawns on grass blocks, rarer than horses, in herds of 1-3.
Meadow is where the donkey has the biggest slice of the roll, 20% across the 6 lists the donkey appears on, and that is the biome to build a donkey farm in.
Each roll brings 1 to 3 donkeys at once, which is why a donkey farm wants floor area rather than height.
Breeding beats waiting on spawns here: golden apple given to two adults produces a baby, and the pen keeps working in a lit, walled space where nothing new would ever spawn.
Each kill is worth 1 to 3 experience and up to 2 leather, or 5 with Looting III, and that figure is what decides how big the donkey farm has to be.
Donkey version history
28 June 2013 is the day the donkey arrived, in Minecraft 1.6.1, and the donkey has been part of the game for 13 years since.
4 other mobs here came with it: the horse, the mule, the skeleton horse and the zombie horse. Of the 88 mobs we list, 29 were in the game before the donkey and 54 arrived after it.
Every donkey figure on this page is read from Minecraft Java 26.2 as it stands today, not from the version above.
What Donkey sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every donkey sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 7 lines a donkey can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.donkey.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.donkey.ambient |  Donkey hee-haws |
| entity.donkey.angry | Donkey neighs |
| entity.donkey.hurt | Donkey hurts |
| entity.donkey.death | Donkey dies |
| entity.donkey.chest | Donkey Chest equips |
| entity.donkey.eat | Donkey eats |
| entity.donkey.jump | Donkey jumps |
Advancements that need Donkey
One advancement in the game asks for donkey by name.
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