Sheep are common passive mobs that supply wool and mutton and are found in many of the grassy biomes.
Spawning[]
The majority of sheep are white, with an 81.836% chance of spawning. The light gray, gray and black sheep each have a 5% chance of spawning, or a 15% chance collectively. Brown sheep have an uncommon 3% chance to spawn. Pink sheep have a rare chance of 0.164% of spawning naturally.
| Adult Sheep | 95% |
| Adult White Sheep | 77.7442% |
| Adult Black Sheep Adult Gray Sheep Adult Light Gray Sheep | 14.25% (4.75% each) |
| Adult Brown Sheep | 2.85% |
| Adult Pink Sheep | 0.1558% |
| Baby Sheep | 5% |
| Baby White Sheep | 4.0918% |
| Baby Black Sheep Baby Gray Sheep Baby Light Gray Sheep | 0.75% (0.25% each) |
| Baby Brown Sheep | 0.15% |
| Baby Pink Sheep | 0.0082% |
If a sheep spawner is placed via /setblock, the sheep model spinning inside appears with one of the six naturally spawning colors. Independently from the displayed color, all six variants are able to spawn, the usual chances apply. To guarantee that sheep always spawn with the desired color, additional NBT tags can be applied to the spawner, utilizing the Color tag.
Natural generation[]
In Java Edition, 4 sheep may spawn above grass blocks, at a light level of 9 or higher, even on snowy taigas.
In Bedrock Edition, 2 to 3 sheep spawn during the world generation on grass blocks at the surface at a light level of 7 or higher with at least a 2 block space above, except in snowy taigas, snowy plains, ice spikes or wooded badlands. They later spawn individually on grassy biomes. 5% spawn as baby sheep.
Two sheep sometimes spawn in shepherd houses, butcher houses and animal pens in villages.
Drops[]
An adult sheep drops:
- 1 wool of the corresponding color. Sheep that have not regrown their wool do not drop wool.
- 1–2 raw mutton (cooked mutton if killed while on fire or when in water using a sword with fire aspect). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 1–5 with Looting III.
- 1–3 experience orbs if killed by a player or tamed wolf.
When sheared, sheep give 1–3 wool and do not take any damage. This is not affected by Fortune or Looting.
Upon successful breeding, 1–7 is dropped.
Killing a baby sheep yields no items nor experience.
Behavior[]
Sheep wander aimlessly and individually or in small flocks of two to four. Sheep avoid cliffs and hazardous areas if it warrants damage. Sheep emit hoarse bleats in mostly random patterns and especially when attacked. If harmed, sheep flee for a few seconds, but make no special attempt to avoid wolves.
Sheep are nonchalant to players or other mobs, but follow a player holding wheat within a six blocks radius.
Adult sheep cannot fit through a gap if the 90-degree intersection of two fences is removed whereas the player and most other mobs can get through easily.
Sheep graze grass blocks, changing them into dirt blocks. In Bedrock Edition, they can also eat the grass or fern on a block, making it disappear. Baby sheep graze grass much more often than adults and mature 1 minute faster when grazing. Sheep can eat grass through blocks that are less than a full block thick, including extremities such as honey blocks, as well as from inside minecarts. A sheared sheep regrows its wool after grazing. Therefore, if no grass is available, a sheep cannot regrow its wool after being sheared. If an adult sheep has the opportunity, the chance of eating grass is 1⁄1000 per game tick (1⁄50 for baby sheep). If /gamerule mobGriefing is set to false, grass blocks remain, but the sheep still regrow their wool.[1]
Dyeing[]
Sheep's wool can be dyed by pressing the use key or the interact button while holding any dye. Sheared sheep cannot be dyed until their wool grows back after eating a grass block. Dyeing changes the color of the sheep's wool permanently or until the sheep is dyed again. The new wool colors will be inherited by baby sheep.
If a sheep is dyed and then sheared, it retains its new dyed wool color after the wool regrows. In Java Edition, the wool patches that are seen on a sheared sheep always appear white regardless of their actual color.
Easter eggs[]
An evoker can also change a sheep's wool color if the evoker isn't engaged in combat and /gamerule mobGriefing is set to true. Then it can change the wool color of any blue sheep within 16 blocks to red. It signals the spell by producing orange color particles () and making a "wololo" sound. This is a reference to the priest unit of the 1997 game Age of Empires.
A sheep named “jeb_”.
If a sheep is named jeb_, its wool cycles through all dye colors in a similar manner to prismarine. This is purely a visual effect. A sheep named jeb_ can still be dyed without changing the rainbow effect, and any wool obtained from one of these sheep has the most recent color as if the sheep was not named.
Breeding[]
An example of how a bred sheep inherits a mixture of its parents' colors when possible.
Sheep can be bred using wheat, after which they spawn a baby sheep. They cannot breed for five minutes after the baby sheep appears.
In Java Edition, if the parents have compatible wool colors (meaning that the corresponding dye items could be combined into a third dye color), the resulting baby sheep inherits a mix of their colors (e.g., blue sheep + white sheep = light blue baby sheep). If the dye colors cannot normally be mixed, and also always in Bedrock Edition, the baby sheep spawns with the same color as one of the parents, chosen randomly, regardless of whether one or both parents have been sheared.
The 20-minute growth of baby sheep can be slightly accelerated using wheat. Each use takes 10% off the remaining time to grow up. It can also accelerate its own growth by eating grass.
Sounds[]
Java Edition:
Sheep use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Sheep baahs | Friendly Creatures | Randomly | entity.sheep.ambient | subtitles.entity.sheep.ambient | ? | ? | 16 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Sheep dies | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep dies | entity.sheep.death | subtitles.entity.sheep.death | ? | ? | 16 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Sheep hurts | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep is damaged | entity.sheep.hurt | subtitles.entity.sheep.hurt | ? | ? | 16 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep_step1.ogg | Footsteps | Friendly Creatures | While a sheep is walking | entity.sheep.step | subtitles.block.generic.footsteps | ? | ? | 16 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Shear.ogg | Shears click | Players | When a sheep is sheared | entity.sheep.shear | subtitles.item.shear | ? | ? | 16 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Dye.ogg | Dye stains | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep is dyed | item.dye.use | subtitles.item.dye.use | ? | ? | 16 |
Bedrock Edition:
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Friendly Creatures | Randomly | mob.sheep.say | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep dies | mob.sheep.say | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep1.ogg | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep is damaged | mob.sheep.say | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sheep_step1.ogg | Friendly Creatures | While a sheep is walking | mob.sheep.step | 0.4 | 1.0 |
| //minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Shear.ogg | Friendly Creatures | When a sheep is sheared | mob.sheep.shear | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Data values[]
ID[]
Java Edition:
| Sheep | sheep | entity.minecraft.sheep |
Bedrock Edition:
| Sheep | sheep | 13 | entity.sheep.name |
Entity data[]
Sheep have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.
Bedrock Edition:
See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.Java Edition:
- Entity data
- Color: The color of the sheep. Default is 0.
- Sheared: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the sheep has been shorn.
Sheep color
Achievements[]
Main Article: Achievements
| Rainbow Collection | Gather all 16 colors of wool. | All the colors of wool do not have to be in the inventory at the same time, but must have been picked up by the player at least once. | 30G | Silver |
Advancements[]
| The Parrots and the Bats | Breed two animals together | Husbandry | Breed a pair of any of these 23 (24 [upcoming: JE 1.20]) mobs:
| husbandry/breed_an_animal | |
| Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 22 mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals |
History[]
This section would benefit from the addition of isometric renders.
Please remove this notice
once you've added suitable isometric renders to the article.
The specific instructions are:
- History of jeb baby sheep.
- Jeb sheep for 17w06a and Pocket 1.1.0 Alpha 1.1.0.0.
| First showcase of sheep on The Word of Notch. Red wool as a drop can be seen. |
| Notch uploaded a video to YouTube of a sheep test. |
| Sheep currently drop mushrooms when killed. |
| Sheep eat grass blocks, turning them into dirt. After eating a random amount of blocks, they regrow their wool. |
| Sheep no longer spawn naturally. |
| Sheep now spawn again. |
| Sheep no longer drop mushrooms. |
| Sheep no longer eat grass. |
| Sheep now have unique idle and hurt sounds. Previously, they have no idle sounds, and use the player's hurt sound. |
| Sheep now drop 1-3 gray wool upon being hit. |
| Sheep now do not drop anything.[verify] |
| Sheep now drop white instead of gray wool. |
| In survival multiplayer, hitting sheep drops unobtainable wool. However, casting a fishing rod drops obtainable wool, while the sheep still appears to have wool. |
| Colored sheep now drop their corresponding wool color. |
| Sheep can now spawn in the color gray, light gray, or black. |
| Sheep can now rarely spawn in the color pink or brown. |
| Sheep idle sounds now play entirely. Previously, say3 was cut. |
| Sheep now drop 2-4 wool when sheared. |
| Sheep no longer drop wool when hit. |
| Sheep now drop one wool block when killed while not sheared. |
| Sheep now flee when attacked. |
| Sheep can now breed. |
| Sheep now have 4 hearts of health (formerly 5 hearts). |
| Baby sheep from dyed parents are now born dyed instead of always being white. |
| Sheep now eat grass blocks and tall grass in order to re-grow their wool again. |
| Shearing sheep now yields 1-3 wool blocks instead of 2-4.[2] |
| Spawn eggs are available for sheep in creative mode. |
| Baby sheep now eat more than adult sheep. |
| The sheep eating animation in multiplayer has been fixed. |
| Sheep now have a new AI. |
| Sheep from spawn eggs can now spawn naturally-colored sheep (white, gray, brown, pink, etc.) |
| Added new step sounds to sheep. |
| Added a sound for shearing sheep. |
| Baby sheep now have a mix of the parents' colors, if the parents' colors are 'compatible' (able to be crafted together as dyes). |
| Baby sheep growth can now be accelerated using wheat. |
| Sheep's wool is no longer visible when they have the Invisibility effect. |
| Ryan Holtz announces that he's adding mutton as a new drop from sheep. |
| Sheep now drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton. |
| Sheep no longer spawn in ice plains biomes. |
| The entity ID has been changed from Sheep to sheep. |
| Sheep can now be sheared using dispensers. |
| 5% of sheep now spawn as babies. |
| Added a sound for dyeing sheep. |
| Sheep now spawn in mountain meadows. |
| Added the overlay part of the sheep with wool on its head and body. |
| Baby sheep now spawn naturally. |
| Sheep spawn eggs are now in creative mode. |
| Sheep can now breed. |
| The sheep AI has been improved. |
| Sheep now graze on tallgrass. |
| Sheep coloration is now applied through shaders, rather than different textures. |
| Sheep are no longer bred using a Feed button as of the release of the Windows 10 Edition.[verify] |
| Baby zombie jockeys now check for nearby sheep to mount prior to attacking the player, villager or golem. |
| Sheep no longer spawn in the snowy plains biome and its variants. |
| Sheep now drop raw mutton and if killed with fire, they drop cooked mutton. |
| Baby husks can now mount sheep. |
| Sheep are now dyed using a Dye button. |
| Sheep now spawn in desert village shepherd houses. |
| Sheep can now spawn in plains, savanna, taiga, snowy taiga and snowy tundra village shepherd houses, butcher houses, and animal pens. |
| Sheep no longer spawn in snowy taigas. |
| Sheep now run away when attacked. |
| Sheep can now be bred using wheat. |
| Sheep now eat grass blocks and tall grass in order to re-grow their wool. As a counterbalance, shearing sheep yields 1-3 wool blocks instead of 2-4. |
| Spawn eggs are now available for sheep in Creative mode. |
| Baby sheep can now be spawned by using
|
| Sheep now drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton. |
| Baby sheep growth can now be accelerated using wheat. |
Prior colors
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Sheep" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Gallery[]
A dying sheep mob.
Brown, light gray, gray, pink and black are 5 of the naturally spawning colors of a sheep.
A large flock of sheep, along with some chickens.
A baby sheep and an adult sheep.
The sheep grass-eating animation.
The baby sheep grass-eating animation.
A jeb_ sheep.
A jeb_ baby sheep.
The relative probabilities of naturally spawned sheep colors.
A sheared baby sheep next to its parent. (sheared baby sheep are available only via commands)
A sheep with a blue head.
A white baby sheep that has been sheared (sheared baby sheep are only available through commands)
Z-fighting in the sheep's legs while invisible, in Spectator mode.
Rare occurrence of a pink sheep.
Sheep bugged in a tree. This is on an old version of Minecraft.
Flock of sheep in a swamp biome
Bedrock Edition[]
The foot of a sheep.
The sheep's color around their face and overlay when sheared corresponds to their wool color.
All of the possible sheep wool colors (dyed by the player.) Sheep have dyed wool remnants.
Official artwork[]
Artwork of a sheep alongside Steve and a pig.
A brown sheep in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.
LEGO minifigure of white sheep.
Baby sheep plush made by JINX
References[]
- ↑ "[MC-147444] Sheep eating grass does not turn grass into dirt when mobGriefing is disabled - Jira" – Mojira, April 4, 2019.
- ↑ "I decreased the amount of wool from 2-4 to 1-3 since wool regrows again" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on Twitter, December 8, 2011
- ↑ "[MCPE-1376] Sheep feet texture missing - Jira" – Mojira, January 31, 2013.