We're on a run of Minecraft update wins this month, as Mojang follows up one of its most valuable changes in a long time with two more fantastic quality-of-life improvements to the blocky open-world sandbox game. If the introduction of craftable saddles has brought you a beloved new companion, Minecraft Snapshot 25w21a is making them much easier to keep healthy and happy. It also stops you from losing your leashed animals by letting you know when your leads have snapped.
The new Minecraft couldn't be fed regular carrots; they'd only accept the golden variant. They weren't as fussy about apples, but for some reason took a high-and-mighty approach to the humble orange vegetable. Now, you can finally use standard carrots as a way to heal them, speed their growth, and improve their temper.
As of recent updates, leads have also become easier to obtain – the removal of the slimeball from their crafting recipe in the Summer Update means it's far more practical to stack up a number that can be used to leash various animals, golems, and even many Minecraft mobs, and lead them around and tie them to fences. Unfortunately, it was easy to accidentally break the lead, especially if you moved away from them a bit too quickly.
In the new Snapshot, however, you'll hear a noise indicating when a lead has snapped. That should quickly alert you to the problem, giving you a chance to reattach yourself to your tethered companion before they disappear. The update also includes fresh custom sounds that you'll hear when shearing saddles, horse armor, and carpets from llamas, and if you look up while exploring you might notice new cloud patterns in the sky.
You'll be able to test these changes out right now if you enable Snapshots for Minecraft Java Edition via the Minecraft Launcher. Otherwise, expect them to land as part of the summer drop – we currently expect the Minecraft 1.21.6 update release date to arrive at some point in June.
Be sure not to start a new world without looking through our pick of the best Minecraft texture packs you should be using right now.
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