Sniffer mob in Minecraft
The Sniffer is a huge, gentle mob that never spawns on its own: you hatch it from a sniffer egg found in warm ocean ruins. Adults sniff the ground and dig up torchflower seeds and pitcher pods, two plants you cannot find any other way.
- Health
- 147 hearts
- Behavior
- Passive
- Food
Torchflower Seeds- Found in
- Not in the wild
Sniffer stats
- Health
- 14 7 hearts
- Behavior
- Passive
- Spawns in
- —
- Size
- 1.9 × 1.75 blocks
- XP when killed
- 1 to 3none as a baby
- Speed
- 0.1
- Detection range
- 16 blocks
- Tempt range
- 10 blocks
// Experience drops only when a player kills it. Speeds are the game’s internal values, not blocks per second.
Where to find Sniffer
Doesn’t spawn naturally in a biome: it comes from a structure, a spawner, a block or an event.
Sniffer drops
Nothing.
Health compared
Sniffer14
Food and breeding
Items it eats, follows or breeds with.
Torchflower SeedsBaby Sniffer
Hatches from 
Sniffer Egg Bred with Torchflower Seeds All baby mobs → Advancements with Sniffer
Advancements whose criteria involve this mob, from the game files.
Command
/summon minecraft:sniffer ~ ~ ~How to get a sniffer egg
Sniffers only come from sniffer eggs. You find them in ocean ruins in warm oceans, by brushing suspicious sand with a brush. The egg is one possible result among pottery sherds, emeralds and other finds, roughly one brushed block in fifteen, so expect to work through a lot of sand. A potion of water breathing makes the job much easier.
How to hatch it
Place the egg and wait. It cracks in stages, then a baby sniffer comes out. Placed on a moss block, the egg hatches much faster, so it is worth bringing one back from the Lush Caves before you place the egg. The baby grows into an adult over time, like other baby animals.
What the sniffer digs up
An adult sniffer wanders around, sniffs the air, then digs into the ground. It can only dig in dirt, grass blocks, podzol, mud and moss. Each dig brings up either torchflower seeds or a pitcher pod, with an even chance for each. It avoids digging the same spot twice, so give it a large patch of soil rather than a small pen.
Why the seeds matter
Plant torchflower seeds on farmland and they grow into a torchflower; a pitcher pod grows into a tall pitcher plant. Both are rare decorative flowers, and they craft orange and cyan dye. Torchflower seeds are also the sniffer's food: two adults fed seeds breed, and one of them lays a new egg instead of giving birth. Sniffers are slow, so move them with a lead rather than by luring them across the map.
Both flowers also count for bees, which pollinate them and breed with them, so a sniffer garden sits well next to your hives. Keep a few seeds aside each time: the next pair of sniffers will need them.
✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026
Sniffer — FAQ
Where does the Sniffer spawn?
Nowhere in the wild. Brush suspicious sand in warm ocean ruins to find a sniffer egg, then hatch it, ideally on a moss block.
How do you breed sniffers?
Feed torchflower seeds to two adult sniffers. One of them lays a sniffer egg that hatches into a new sniffer.
What does a sniffer dig up?
Torchflower seeds or a pitcher pod, with an even chance for each. It only digs in dirt, grass blocks, podzol, mud and moss.
What does a Sniffer drop?
Nothing.
How much health does a Sniffer have?
14 health points, which is 7 hearts.
Allay
Bat
Camel
Camel Husk
Chicken
Cod
Cow
Donkey