Turtles are the kind of Mob that always succeed in making me feel giddy when stumbling upon them in my world. These adorable sea critters are passive Mobs that can be found lounging on Beaches or swimming in the Ocean.
With their cute little green faces I always wish I could bring them with me or hatch their Eggs to have little baby Turtles.
However, Turtle Eggs in Minecraft are very delicate and fragile things and learning how to hatch Eggs can be a bit difficult. So I will help you learn how to hatch Turtle Eggs the safe way.
Where to Find Turtles in Minecraft
Like I mentioned before Turtles can be found on Beaches. More correctly, they can be found everywhere except for Cold and Stone Beaches.
So anywhere where there’s the Sea and Sand you can expect to find a Turtle or few.
Usually Turtles spawn in small groups on the Beach itself, and sometimes you are likely going to find them in the water a little ways from the Beach they would be inhabiting.
They can even be seen swimming with Dolphins at times.
Their groups are usually 5 members strong and they can be seen sticking together and basking in the sunlight.
Breeding Turtles
Unlike other Mobs, Turtles are one of those that cannot be tamed the way a Cat or a Wolf can. They can be fed to be bred, but it doesn’t make them earn trust with the player nor follow them around.
To put a Turtle into “love-mode” all you need is Seagrass, which can be found growing from the bottom of Ocean Biomes. To harvest Seagrass you will need to have a pair of Sheers on hand.
Any other tool will simply destroy it without yielding anything for you to pick up.
Approaching a Turtle with the Seagrass in your hand will draw its attention and you can feed it to it by right clicking on the Turtle. You will see it enter “love-mode” which is signaled by the little hearts that will fly around it.
After that simply click on the next Turtle nearby and they will mate together!
Once they breed one of the Turtles will look a bit bigger and in its “inventory” it’ll have the Eggs. The difference is very subtle.
The pregnant Turtle will then likely move away from the group. Any Turtle, once pregnant, will travel to the Beach it had spawned on to lay their Eggs, the same way a real life Turtle would with its home beach.
Because of this it would be good to follow after the pregnant Turtle with a Map on hand. Making a copy of a map with the Beach’s location can always help you come back to the beach in case it’s far away.
Once it finds a nearby sand block it’ll spin around itself for a few seconds before laying the Eggs, with Sand particles flying all around it.
A Turtle can lay between 1 and 4 Eggs.
After laying the Eggs the pregnant Turtle can immediately mate again, while the non-pregnant one can mate right away.
In Bedrock Version there’s a 90 second cooldown before a Turtle can be mated again.
Hatching Turtle Eggs
The hard part about hatching Turtle Eggs in Minecraft is that they are very fragile. Every Mob and player can easily crush the Eggs.
If you jump or even walk over them they will be crushed.
When laid they can be in a cluster of 1-4 Eggs on a single block and they can only be placed on Sand or Red Sand blocks. If there’s more than a single Egg on a block they will break one at a time when being trampled.
Only Turtles can walk over the Eggs without breaking them.
The only way of picking Eggs back up once they’re placed or laid is by using the Silk Touch Enchantment on a Pickaxe. However, this will reset the time it takes for the Eggs to hatch.
It doesn’t matter if they’re above or below Water for hatching.
The Eggs take some time to hatch. Typically it takes about 5 in-game days for the Eggs to hatch and they grow faster during the night.
Their growth progresses in the form of cracking which occurs randomly during those 5-ish days. Once the Eggs crack 3 times they will hatch.
All of the Eggs hatch simultaneously if they’re on the same block, regardless if one Egg may have been ahead of the others.
Raising Baby Turtles
After having hatched you will have the baby Turtles to care for and watch them grow. The Sand Beach they had hatched on will become their home Beach and once they’re grown and have their own Eggs they will be returning to this exact Beach to lay their Eggs.
The hatched baby Turtles are some of the smallest Mobs in the game. They’re so small that if they walk upon Soul Sand they will suffocate inside it.
Minecraft Turtle Shell Recipe
- 5 Scute
The growth of baby turtles can be accelerated by using Seagrass and upon becoming a full grown adult Turtle they drop Scute, which is used to craft a Turtle Shell which can be worn like armor on your head.
Scute cannot be acquired any other way.
Building a Turtle Egg Safe-Haven
The best way to successfully hatch your Turtle Eggs and do so in great numbers if you wish to farm for Scute is to build them a safe haven of sorts. Think of it as a zoo enclosure.
The way I do this is by usually building a small closed off cavern where the Turtles can safely crawl inside and place their Eggs. Another way could be to build them an enclosure of some kind around their Beach.
Remember that the Turtles will not be able to lay their Eggs unless they’re at their home beach, so leading them away to your base or something of the sort will not help.
You are going to have to work with their home Beach.
A cavern built around the laid Eggs can protect them from being trampled if you make it low enough.
Usually I make my cavern about only a block tall, which means no Mob other than the possible Chicken or Spider can actually crawl inside it. The Turtles can reach their Eggs, but that is not a problem, as we have stated before.
A kind of enclosure with efficient lighting is also a good alternative that keeps all other Mobs away. Though a Fence or a Wall can still be climbed over by Spiders and other Mobs.
Just remember to be gentle with your Turtle Eggs and have patience while they hatch.
