After I've bred two animals, there is a time frame where they wont accept wheat/seeds/carrots, in order to breed again. However I've only got a couple of animals at this stage, and I would like to maximise the efficiency (i.e, minimise the time) in which I get to a relatively large flock/herd.
So, how long do I have to wait before trying to breed them again?
Best Answer
As stated below on the minecraft wiki about breeding. Breeding has a 5 minute cooldown before they can be bred again.
A little math for a starting animal farm. Lets say you start off with 2 animals of the same species. You mate them and they generate a litte guy. The breeding gets on a 5 min cooldown and the cub starts his 20min journey to maturity. By the time your first cub reaches maturity and is also able to mate you have an additional 3 cubs maturing in 5 - 10 and 15 minutes. So after just 25 minutes you have a second pair of animals which you can breed. This wil double your breeding rate and nog have 2 cubs every 5 minutes. This takes 20 minutes to get effect as for the produced cubs take 20 minutes to reach maturity. In about 1 hour you have around 14 mature animals and around 10 cubs. At this time you have a proper farm going and you can go and do more interesting stuff.