You’ll have a tough time finding pandas in Minecraft, let alone feeding them. Hence, it’s pivotal you carefully approach their habitat, mainly jungle biome. These animals may bail or attack otherwise, depending on their appearance, personality, and the Minecraft difficulty: Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard, or Hardcore. More importantly, you must bring the right kind of food because it’s impossible to get them to follow you any other way. Funnily enough, you may encounter pandas near a village, in which case they may attack a villager. Thus, drawing their attention to food can save a virtual life. Now, let’s tell you what pandas eat in Minecraft.
What do pandas in Minecraft consume?
Minecraft’s pandas eat bamboo and, in some cases, a cake item placed on the ground. The first comes as no surprise, as real-life pandas are depicted chewing a bamboo stick, and their diet for 99% of the time includes vegetarian food. Whenever you obtain bamboo and hold it in your hand by highlighting the bamboo stick in the hotbar, or place a bamboo block, all or almost all pandas within the 16 block radius will turn to you, and start following you. They only stop following when the distance between you is 16 blocks or greater.
As for cakes, some pandas choose to approach them, pick them up, and eat them, while others don’t. The success of this approach is hard to determine, hence we suggest investing time in the first.
Can I feed all pandas in the game?
No, not all pandas are created equal in Minecraft, hence only some eat bamboo. Other pandas will simply ignore you. The violent ones among the species may go out of their norm to attack you more than once, making them somewhat dangerous. This is unlike many other friendly mobs you can find in the wilderness or nurture at home as pets. This discrepancy in feeding behavior stems from the genealogy feature, which lets each panda spawn with one of the predetermined personalities at random. The variations of panda spawning in Minecraft, as well as how personalities affect them, are as follows:
- Normal/regular — Following the player when conditions are met. Has a frowning face.
- Lazy — Depends on the version. In Java Edition, lazy panda refuses to follow while lying on its back, even if the player dangles the bamboo from up close. However, on Bedrock Edition, lazy panda immediately gets up and starts pursuing the player. These pandas are smiling.
- Playful — This panda personality acts as a normal panda with regard to food. You’ll recognize it because its tongue is sticking out.
- Weak — Acts as the regular panda. Has a snotty nose and its eyes are tearing up.
- Aggressive — Same as the normal panda, except it goes into a fit of rage when attacked instead of attacking once and backing away. Sports angry eyebrows and a tighter frown than usual.
- Worried — This type of panda will try to avoid you at all cost, and you’ll recognize it by puppy eyes akin to that of a tamed wolf. It won’t chase you while holding bamboo or placing cake on the ground. Instead, you must approach and feed it manually.
- Brown — A rare form of normal panda, only with a brown colored fur. Acts the same otherwise.
Role of food for Minecraft pandas
Unlike horses, whose health was restored as a consequence of feeding, and allowed players to tame them, pandas utilize food for one primary purpose — breeding. Though we will cover that topic separately, as it includes several tips and tricks, we want to mention two quick bamboo-related things.
First, you shouldn’t plant more than 7 bamboo stick blocks near two pandas. That’s because 8 or more leads them to enter love mode and start to mate. You know you’re doing it right if you feed a panda, and it sits to eat but doesn’t sport hearts above its head. This is crucial. Giving food to two close-by pandas makes them start bleating and enter a fit of rage out of jealousy. They will attack you simultaneously. This becomes a huge problem with aggressive pandas In particular. These are not only powerful but have the health bar of a player.