Best Pets in Grow a Garden (Tier List)

Kitsune

S Tier

Fruit-Stealing Pet

Right now, the best pet in Grow a Garden. It can apply a Chakra Mutation (15x value) to a fruit from a nearby garden, or even a Foxfire Chakra (90x value), and give it to you.

Dragonfly

S Tier

Variant Pet

Gives a guaranteed Gold plant every five minutes (worth 20x more). It’s hard to say no to that.

Disco Bee

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Activates the Disco mutation on crops (125x value) nearly every 20 minutes, with a 12.28% chance each time.

Raccoon

S Tier

Fruit-Stealing Pet

Gives free fruit every 15 minutes by cloning one from a neighbor’s garden.

Corrupted Kitsune

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Turns nine fruits in your garden into either Corrupted Chakra (15x value) or Foxfire Chakra (90x value) variants.

Mimic Octopus

S Tier

Ability Cloner

Mimics the ability of an active pet. Best when paired with other S-tier animals.

Butterfly

S Tier

Variant Pet

Applies Rainbow mutation (50x) to plants with five mutations every 30 minutes (skips favorited ones).

Spinosaurus

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Eats one mutation from four plants and puts them all on a single fruit, preferring to bless one of your favorited plants.

T-Rex

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Eats a mutation from a random fruit grown on your farmland and then pours it onto three to four different fruits.

Fennec Fox

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Copies a random mutation from your neighbor’s garden and triggers it on one of your crops.

Brontosaurus

S Tier

Size Booster

It’s the first animal that can give you big pets by adding a size and weight bonus to hatched eggs.

Tanuki

S Tier

Multiple Traits

Messes around in your garden by adding mutations like Choc (2x), Chilled (2x), Moonlit (2x) and more to one of your fruits; it may also grant Sheckles, age itself, or do other activities.

Seal

S Tier

Egg Giver

Can give you the egg of a pet you just sold, meaning you can keep selling unwanted Mythicals and Divines for Mythical and Bug Eggs to try for your desired pets.

Queen Bee

S Tier

Cooldown & Mutation

Great as a support critter for Raccoon, Red Fox, Disco Bee, and more, since it fully resets a random pet’s ability cooldown. Also applies the Pollinated mutation (3x value) to a nearby crop roughly every 25 minutes.

Tanchozuru

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Adds the Tranquil mutation to all crop types in your garden. Best used while the Corrupted and Zen Event is active.

Kodama

S Tier

Mutation Pet

One of the most useful pets in the 1.16.0 update. It lets your picked fruits turn into Tranquil.

Corrupted Kodama

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Provides Corrupted fruits required to complete tasks in the Corrupted event.

Red Fox

S Tier

Seed Pet

Steals (duplicates) a plant seed from a neighbor’s farm (Seed Shop ones only).

Chicken Zombie

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Grants your fruits the Zombified Mutation (25x multiplier).

Praying Mantis

S Tier

Variant Pet

Triggers either a Gold or Rainbow mutation on fruits, boosting their value. Definitely a must-have if you’re aiming for higher stacking bonuses.

Mole

S Tier

Resource Pet

Can dig up free gear for you (i.e., Sprinklers, Lightning Rod, Night Staff) and also Sheckles.

Shiba Inu

S Tier

Seed Pet

More chance to dig up a seed than Golden Lab. Improve its ability by using Nihonzaru or giving it Gold or Rainbow pet mutations.

Blood Owl

S Tier

XP Booster

Makes all your active pets age faster.

Firefly

S Tier

Mutation Pet

Turns your crops Shocked (50x multiplier).

Golden Lab

A Tier

Seed Pet

Digs up random seeds (Common to Divine). Perfect for farming while you’re AFK.

Sand Snake

A Tier

Resource Pet

Clone tools from the Gear Shop (like Sprinklers, Tanning Mirrors, Magnifying Glass, and more) and seeds from the Seed Shop when making a purchase, meaning you might get two instead of one with a 1.45% chance.

Axolotl

A Tier

Harvest Related

Best for making Sheckles, as it gives you a 6.54% chance for summer fruits to stay on their plants. Most of those are top-tier, like Traveler’s Fruit, Lily of the Valley, and Guanabana, so you can collect more of them when harvesting.

Petal Bee

A Tier

Multiple Traits

Ideal for farming Pollinated Fruits (Queen Bee-like timer) and keeping flowers after harvest, especially high-value ones like Sunflower, Moon Blossom, Purple Dahlia, and Pink Lily.

Ankylosaurus

A Tier

Resource Pet

Might return stolen plants to your inventory while it’s active.

Pachycephalosaurus

A Tier

Resource Pet

When crafting items, it may grant you a bonus item of the same kind.

Triceratops

A Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Literally the best pet to use if you want multiple plants to grow fruits quickly.

Cooked Owl

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Can give your crops the Burnt (4x value) or Cooked (25x value) mutation roughly every 15 minutes, with a 15.28% chance to activate. Also grants active animals an extra 0.17 experience points.

Polar Bear

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Has a 10.12% chance to grant you a Chilled (2x value) or Frozen fruit (10x value) every 1.49 minutes.

Raiju

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Removes the Shocked mutation from a fruit and applies the Static (8x value) mutation to four fruits in your garden. During thunderstorms, it may apply the Shocked mutation instead of Static. Favorited fruits are ignored.

Pig

A Tier

Variant Pet

Has a higher chance of granting Gold and Rainbow variants than the Praying Mantis (2.2% every two minutes), but its cooldown is longer in comparison. It’s a decent pick, though not as rewarding as the Mantis.

Pterodactyl

A Tier

Jump Height & Mutation

Increases your character’s jump height and flaps its wings to give three to four fruits the Windstruck Mutation (2x Value), and sometimes even the Twisted Mutation (5x Value).

Hyacinth Macaw

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Like the Cloudtouched Mutation Spray, it gives your crops the Cloudtouched mutation (6x multiplier) every eight minutes, though the probability is only 15.74%.

Bear Bee

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Acts just like a Honey Sprinkler, granting a confirmed HoneyGlazed mutation (5x value) to fruits every 25 minutes.

Honey Bee

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Lets you farm guaranteed Pollinated plants (3x multiplier) faster than other bees. Aging it can reduce the timer.

Sea Turtle

A Tier

Mutation & XP Booster

Sends about 1,000 XP to a random pet every 11 minutes and makes a fruit Wet (2x value).

Moon Cat

A Tier

Plant Growth & Harvest Related

Boosts fruit size (1.51x) and keeps Lunar and Blood Moon plants from disappearing after harvest (with only a 6.1% chance).

Moth

A Tier

Aging Pet

Keeps your pets’ Hunger Bar full every 13 minutes, helping them age faster and perform better (Variant pets can give higher-tier mutations, and seed diggers can find better seeds.)

Ostrich

A Tier

Aging Pet

Lets your hatched pets come with an age of one to four.

Silver Monkey

A Tier

Resource Pet

When you sell fruit, it might pop back into your inventory (even mutated ones like Shocked, Gold, or Rainbow). The rarer it is, the lower the chance.

Blood Hedgehog

A Tier

Plant Growth & Variant

Best if you have lots of prickly fruits (i.e., Durian, Cactus, Dragon Fruit, and Pineapple) on your farm, as this critter can make them larger and increase their chances of getting Gold and Rainbow variants.

Red Giant Ant

A Tier

Harvest Related

Can copy your plants when you pick them (even Divine ones).

Tarantula Hawk

A Tier

Cooldown & Mutation

Similar to Queen Bee, but only advances pet cooldown by 1.3 minutes. Useful if you haven’t unlocked Queen Bee yet.

Pack Bee

A Tier

Inventory Pet

Used to expand your inventory slots, letting you hold more fruits, pets, and seeds.

Starfish

A Tier

XP Booster

A situational critter that gains 6.36 XP every second. Best used when you’re trying to unlock extra pet slots. It’s even better than any Brown Mouse, as it can earn you 3,816 experience points every 10 minutes.

Scarlet Macaw

A Tier

Mutation Pet

Has a chance to bless a nearby fruit with a Verdant mutation (4x value) every 11.51 minutes, though the chance is only 15.95%.

Capybara

A Tier

XP Booster

Critters within its radar won’t lose hunger and will gain XP every second instead.

Snail

A Tier

Seed Pet

Can sometimes give you a seed from the plant you just harvested.

Blood Kiwi

A Tier

Hatch Related

Can greatly reduce your eggs’ hatch time (by 45 seconds per minute) and increase hatch speed by 20%.

Koi

A Tier

Egg Giver

May return the eggs you hatch while they’re swimming around your plot.

Squirrel

A Tier

Reclaimer & XP Booster

Might save a single use of your Reclaimer and gain some experience points per second.

Turtle

A Tier

Sprinkler Pet

Mainly works with sprinklers, making them last longer.

Spotted Deer

A Tier

Fruit Duplicator

Can duplicate your berry plants (Celestiberries, Grapes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Cranberries).

Night Owl

A Tier

XP Booster

Has the same ability as Blood Owl but isn’t as good.

Football

B Tier

Resource Pet

You can get Sheckles or a Watering Can by running around the related shops.

Mizuchi

B Tier

Mutation Pet

When a fruit with the Wet or Drenched mutation is stolen, one of its mutations might be applied to a fruit in your garden.

Kappa

B Tier

Mutation Pet

Waters your plants to give them the Wet mutation (2x value), or alternatively transforms Wet fruits into Bloodlit (5x value).

Nihonzaru

B Tier

Passive Booster

Increases the passive ability of all active critters, improving their traits only if you’ve got a Hot Spring in your plot.

Iguanodon

B Tier

Aging Pet

A special pet that helps age all your active dinos by transferring XP to them.

Parasaurolophus

B Tier

Speed-Up Pet

Mostly just helps you open up those cosmetic crates faster.

Raptor

B Tier

Mutation Pet

Has a small chance of giving you the Amber Mutation (10x Value) on harvested fruits and also boosts your walking speed.

Stegosaurus

B Tier

Fruit Duplicator

Lets you snag a bonus fruit when picking plants. Prehistoric crops have better odds than other rare ones. It’s super useful when harvesting a Bone Blossom plant.

Dilophosaurus

B Tier

XP Booster

Gives 608 XP to 3 to 4 random pets so they age quicker or use their traits a bit sooner (like 41 seconds early).

Bald Eagle

B Tier

Hatch Related

Lets you hatch eggs 70.40 seconds faster every 7 minutes, not as good as Blood Kiwi, though.

Hamster

B Tier

Speed-Up Pet

Handy for crafting, as it boosts your crafting speed by 30.45% for 18.74 seconds every 3.05 minutes.

Flamingo

B Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Good for overall plant and fruit growth, but not as effective as the Triceratops.

Meerkat

B Tier

Cooldown Pet

A critter that can lower another pet’s cooldown by 21.08 seconds every 7.14 minutes. Sometimes, it might even perform its ability again instantly after one round.

Tsuchinoko

B Tier

Lucky Harvest

Gives you a better chance to get Lucky Harvest and earn extra seeds and fruits when harvesting.

Maneki-neko

B Tier

Resource Pet

Refunds fruits every two minutes when you sell them. The ability lasts for 10 seconds.

Caterpillar

B Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Makes leafy plants grow faster (Beanstalk, Corn, Pepper, Eggplant, etc.), but there are other crops that aren’t leafy.

Giant Ant

B Tier

Harvest Related

Not as strong as Red Giant Ant, but it’s still useful.

Monkey

B Tier

Resource Pet

Similar to Silver Monkey, just not as powerful.

Dog

B Tier

Seed Pet

It’s like a low-key version of a Golden Lab.

Toucan

B Tier

Plant Growth & Mutation

Allows your Tropical Plants (Mango, Dragon Fruit, Coconut, Cacao, and Watermelon) to mature quickly and gain a variant with a 1.18% chance.

Hedgehog

B Tier

Plant Growth & Variant

A less powerful version of the Blood Hedgehog.

Orangutan

B Tier

Resource Pet

It comes in handy when crafting often, as it offers a 3.43% chance to return materials to your backpack.

Crab

B Tier

Resource Pet

Only manages to snatch around 260 to 460 Sheckles every 6 minutes.

Brown Mouse

B Tier

Jump Height & XP Booster

Good for unlocking more pet slots since it ages fast (803.74 XP/10 min) and also boosts player jump height.

Panda

B Tier

Crop Value Booster

Bamboo is a solid money plant, and Panda increases its price even more.

Wasp

B Tier

Cooldown & Mutation

Shares the same abilities as Queen Bee and Tarantula Hawk, but has a weaker ability timer.

Echo Frog

B Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Speeds up a random plant’s growth by a full day every 10 minutes.

Cat

B Tier

Size Booster

Pretty much does the same thing as Orange Tabby.

Deer

B Tier

Fruit Duplicator

A version of Spotted Deer with lower chances of cloning berry plants.

Sea Otter

B Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Waters plants at different times to speed up growth, but since most crops grow pretty quickly, it mostly helps when you’re short on time or growing slower plants.

Kiwi

B Tier

Hatch Related

A weaker version of Blood Kiwi (helps lower hatching time to 20 seconds per minute).

Owl

B Tier

XP Booster

Shares the same abilities as Blood Owl and Night Owl, but it’s not that solid.

Cow

B Tier

Plant Growth Pet

Helps with plant growth, making it spawn fruits real quick (about 1.12 times faster).