Ostrich is a tamable mob found in The Overworld and only exists as part of a well-known Minecraft mod, Mo’ Creatures. The mod, which adds 58+ mobs Mojang never implemented, allows these birds to spawn in grass and desert biomes. They can be a superb replacement for taming and riding a horse. After players place a saddle, they can ride ostriches, make them wear helmets, and carry chests. What’s more, unlike their real-life counterparts, these mobs can transform into fantasy creatures. But to get there and keep them alive afterward, you must know the answer to, “what do ostriches eat in Minecraft?”
Ostriches eat these foods in Minecraft
An ostrich in Minecraft can consume the following foods:
- Melon Seeds
- Wheat
- Seeds
- Apple
- Golden Apple
- Essence of Fire
- Essence of Darkness
- Essence of Light
- Essence of Undead
- Rotten Flesh
Why should an ostrich eat these foods in Minecraft?
Here are 3 reasons you should feed these foods an ostrich:
1. Breeding
Before the mod version v6.3.1, no food was necessary for breeding, and eggs spawned randomly, whenever two ostriches were close by. After its release, players must feed the female ostrich a Melon Seed so that it can lay eggs; the male doesn’t need to be fed.
2. Healing
Here’s how you can heal an ostrich in Minecraft
- Feeding Seeds, Wheat, Apples, or Golden Apples restores health to a tamed ostrich only. Furthermore, the health restored seems to be identical to giving the same food to horses.
- Feeding one of the four essences to an already transformed ostrich only heals the type of ostrich that corresponds to that essence type. For example, Essence of Darkness only heals wyvern ostriches.
- Ostriches can consume Rotten Flesh, and it affects them the same way as wolves. To clarify, they are healed but don’t get a “Hunger” debuff for 30 seconds that players do. The debuff makes the hunger bar deplete faster than normal.
3. Transformation
Feeding each of the essences can transform a tamed ostrich into these creatures:
- Wyvern ostrich is the result of a transformation of an ostrich fed Essence of Darkness.
- Nether ostrich appears after you feed an ostrich Essence of Fire. This is also the only ostrich that can fly in the game.
- Unihorned ostrich appears when an ostrich consumes Essence of Light.
- Undead ostrich is the form ostrich takes after it eats Essence of Undead.
How to feed an ostrich in Minecraft
Regardless of the food item, you can feed an ostrich the same way you would carve a pumpkin in Minecraft. More specifically, following the instructions in step 3. In Survival Mode, unlike Shears, whose durability gets reduced, the item is consumed in the process one by one. No such constraints exist in Creative Mode, though.