Minecraft Forums

Im running a world when minecraft first came out, i lured the animals with wheat to a closed zone, but when i move to far from them the animals are gone? what gives? anyway to fix this?

Im seriously annoyed by this...

This is a known bug, but currently we do not know if they are despawning or clipping through fences.

There is no way to fix it if they are despawning, but if they are clipping through fences, try to make an underground animal pen, and don't use a fence gate, use doors/piston doors.

I am not sure if this will work, but it's worth a try.

Quote from george1710

Im running a world when minecraft first came out, i lured the animals with wheat to a closed zone, but when i move to far from them the animals are gone? what gives? anyway to fix this?

Im seriously annoyed by this...

How big was your closed zone?

I had the same issue.. I know I had over 20 cows and went down into my mine, came back up and they were all gone but 1 or 2... Went along my fence line, and even had a friends try to find something.. which we didnt.

Have a small fenced in area for them to not despawn has been my effort to maintain my live stock.

I don't understand why Animals like running into fences so much anyway.
If you build a bigger pen for them... They still run into the fences.

the fence is about 9x9. hmmm

If i create a new world will this issue be resolved?

Quote from george1710

the fence is about 9x9. hmmm

If i create a new world will this issue be resolved?

I would think so. The only issues I've seen with this are in older worlds. My new world doesn't have this issue

I have experienced no such problem as yet.

ok so now I've loaded the game up and have no such issue.. very odd

I haven't tried to keep a farm since my mobs disappeared the first time but try this. Outside of your fenced in area make a 2-4 block high wall.

If they are just clipping through the fence this should fix it. If they are despawning, we'll have to wait until they release a bug fix

I've seen animals despawn before...sorta.
I spawned about 15 chickens in a 5-tall area and left to do what I was doing.
I came back later and they were all gone...

So, quick update. I did witness a pig phase through one of my fences. This happens a lot like how squids phase through blocks in underwater buildings. My remedy was to put a 3 block high wall around my pen haven't lost an animal yet.

Not sure if this is the issue you guys are having but give it a shot. Replace your fences with a different kind of block. Yes, it's ugly, but you will keep your animals.

Edit: At least I have

Yes, blocks are the only thing that will keep them in. They are not despawning they are clipping through fences. My solution since I didn't want to keep them contained with blocks, is breed so many that if even a quarter of them get out, I won't notice much of a difference..

I dont think they are clipping the fences in my world because I am coloring them red so wouldnt I see red sheep all around if they were getting throught the fences?

I haven't experienced this...

From what I've experienced, animals are definitely despawning. On my world I have a medium-sized island (mostly swamp biome) where a ton of animals are running around. At least most of the time. Yet sometimes there isn't a single one around when I come back from extended mining expeditions underground. Also, I've dyed a lot of sheep orange to test this, and almost always they are gone and replaced with new sheep when I come back.

The only animals that apparently aren't despawning are chickens. There's a 4 x 3 hole in the ground, 4 blocks deep, in which a couple of chickens dropped into. By now there are about 20 of them (I collected the eggs and threw them against a wall). These chickens are always there. But for the other animals, they're coming and going.

Ive found animals in lots of places that they get trapped (an at least 2 block deep hole) or die (very wide waterfall) make sure there isnt a sort of natural mob grinder in the area, cause I have one near my house, a lake or part of a river opens into a cave, making a long 3 wide waterfall. cows and sheep get caught in it quickly

Quote from SharpenedPata

Ive found animals in lots of places that they get trapped (an at least 2 block deep hole) or die (very wide waterfall)

And that's the weird thing: animals stay practically forever once they get trapped in natural traps like holes, yet they disappear when they can run around. And I actually mean disappear, not just run off.

I have also experienced this, and it is very frustrating. I created 11x11 plots, on a new world, in an underground base, using a good fencing design () and yet my Mooshrooms, Cows, Sheep, and Pigs are always despawning/disappearing. I constantly have to breed them just so I can keep two around, and recently I have gone down to one Mooshroom, so I have to trek across an ocean to get the the island again. I'm sure it's a known bug and will be fixed soon, so I'll just avoid animal farming for now.

I have animal farms in my world and they don't despawn as of now. Though when I was first starting my farm I had 4 cows and 1 baby cow then when I came back from a mining expedition there was only 1 cow and the 1 baby, So i don't think they will despawn if you have a abundance of animals.