How to Tame a Fox in Minecraft: Breed One Instead

Adult foxes can’t be tamed in Minecraft. What you can do is breed two wild foxes with sweet berries or glow berries: the baby they produce trusts you permanently. A trusting fox doesn’t run from you and fights mobs that attack you, which is the closest thing to a tame fox the game has.

What you need to tame a fox

• Sweet berries or glow berries. At least two, more for extra kits. Sweet berry bushes grow in the same taigas where foxes live, and glow berries hang from cave vines in lush caves.
• A lead or two, to bring the baby home.
• An enclosed pen at home, ideally ready before you set out.

Step 1: Find two foxes

Red foxes live in taigas and old growth taigas; snow foxes live in snowy taigas and groves. They spawn in groups of two to four, so where you find one there’s usually another.

Foxes sleep during the day, which is the best time to approach. Sneak toward them: a fox doesn’t wake or bolt from a sneaking player until you’re right on top of it. At night they’re awake, hunting, and much harder to get close to.

Step 2: Feed both foxes

1. Hold sweet berries or glow berries.
2. Sneak up to the first fox and use the berries on it. Hearts appear.
3. Do the same to the second fox, quickly, before either runs off.
4. The two foxes meet and a kit spawns, plus 1-7 XP.

If a fox runs before you feed it, back off and wait for it to settle. They don’t stay scared for long.

Step 3: Get the kit away from its parents

This is where most people lose their fox. The kit trusts you, but baby foxes follow adult foxes, and the wild parents still run from you. When they run, the kit goes with them.

Put a lead on the kit immediately after it spawns and walk it away. Once it’s away from wild adults, nothing pulls it into running from you again.

Step 4: Keep it

A trusting fox wanders on its own. It doesn’t follow you like a wolf and won’t teleport if you walk away, so give it a home it can’t leave. Foxes can jump over fences and walls, so a normal fence pen isn’t enough on its own: tie the fox to a fence post with a lead, or build the pen two blocks high or with a roof.

What a trusting fox does

• Doesn’t flee from you.
• Attacks mobs that hurt you. In Bedrock that includes other players; Java skips a few attackers such as iron golems and bees.
• Stays quiet at night instead of screeching while you’re nearby.
• Picks up items. Give it a sword and it hits harder; a sword with Looting even applies to the mobs it kills.

For a combat companion you can command, a wolf is still the better pick (see our wolf taming guide). For more on fox behavior, variants and what they carry, see the fox mob page.