Sheep have been in Minecraft since the early days of the game, being your method of gathering wool to craft a bed and sleep through the night safely. This is a much faster and safer way to collect wool than collecting rope from spiders. That said, if you’re looking for sheep, you might have trouble finding them depending on what biome you’re in. Instead, it is often better to collect some and feed them to breed. If you’re looking to raise sheep or keep them alive, here’s what they eat in Minecraft.

Related: What do chickens eat in Minecraft?

What can you feed the sheep in Minecraft?

While you may see sheep crouching on the ground and eating the grass on top of dirt blocks, you cannot feed them grass yourself. Instead, you will need to collect or grow wheat and use it to feed them to restore their health or cause them to reproduce. Wheat can be found in gardens located in villages, or you can grow it by getting seeds from tall grass and planting them in soil tilled with a hoe. Place water blocks nearby to make it grow faster.

When you have the Wheat in hand, any nearby Sheep will follow you unless you put them away or move far enough away from them. Interact with them and they will eat the Wheat. If hearts start flying out of them, they are ready to breed and will search for another Sheep in love mode to make a baby Sheep.

If you feed multiple wheats to a baby sheep, they will grow to adulthood faster, as indicated by the green flashes emanating from them. You can’t harvest wool or lamb from young sheep, so make sure you wait to kill them or use Sheers on them when they’re fully grown. If you are killing them for items, make sure at least two survive to keep feeding them and increase your sheep numbers again.