Sheep

Sheep

Health points	8
Size	Adult: Height: 1.3 Blocks Width: 0.9 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.65 Blocks Width: 0.45 Blocks
Spawn	Opaque blocks with at least two block space above them.
Common drops	See Drops
Experience	Kill Adult: 1–3 Breeding: 1–7
Sounds	Idle/Hurt/Die Sheared
Internal ID	JE: 91 BE: 13
Namespaced ID	sheep

Sheep are passive mobs that supply wool and mutton. Water Sheep was here.

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. Using a spawn egg to get one of these sheep types lies at a reasonable 15%. Brown sheep have an uncommon 3% chance to spawn. Pink sheep have a very rare 0.164% chance of naturally spawning.

5% spawn as babies.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Natural generation

Sheep spawn on grass blocks at the surface at a light level of 9 or higher with at least 2 block space above, except in snowy tundras, mushroom fields and variants. They spawn in flocks of 4 (2–3 at light level 7 or above‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}) during world generation.

Sheep can spawn in shepherd houses, butcher house, and animal pens in villages.

Drops

When killed, an adult sheep drops:

• 1 wool of the corresponding color. Sheep that have not regrown their wool do not drop more wool.
• 1–2 raw mutton (cooked mutton if killed while on fire). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 1–5 with Looting III.
• 1–3 experience if killed by a player or tamed wolf.

When sheared, sheep give 1–3 wool and do not take any damage. A sheared sheep regrows its wool after eating from a grass block. Sheep will drop 4 wool if hit 8 times with a player's fist and sheared right while being hit for the eighth time.

Sheep also give 1–7 experience when breeding.

Like other baby animals, killing a lamb yields no items, nor experience.

Behavior

Sheep act like most passive mobs; they wander around aimlessly, avoid falling off cliffs high enough to cause damage, and usually stay out of water or lava. They can be heard bleating occasionally. They try to jump over obstacles one block high, which sometimes causes strange behavior near fences, walls and similar blocks. They attempt to flee for a few seconds if attacked.

Sheep follow a player holding wheat within a radius of 8 blocks, but cease following if the player moves out of the radius.

Dyeing

Sheep's wool can be dyed by pressing the use key (the interact button in Bedrock Edition) while holding any dye. Sheared sheep cannot be dyed until their wool grows back.

Dyeing changes the color of the sheep's wool permanently or until the sheep is dyed again. The new wool color can be inherited by lambs. (see #Breeding)

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 seen on a sheared sheep always appear white regardless of their actual color. In Bedrock Edition, the patches keep the original dye color.

Eating grass

Sheep eat grass blocks, changing them into dirt blocks. When a sheared sheep eats a grass block during daytime, its wool grows back. Therefore, if no grass is available, a sheep cannot regrow its wool after being sheared. They can't eat a grass block with tall grass on it, but can eat the tall grass, making it disappear. If an adult sheep has the opportunity, the chance of eating grass is 1 in 1000 per game tick (1 in 50 for baby sheep).

In Bedrock Edition, baby zombies can mount sheep if it wants to be a jockey upon attacking a player, villager or golem.

Wolves

Wolves attack nearby sheep without provocation. Sheep make no special attempt to avoid wolves, although they flee when attacked.

jeb_ sheep

A sheep named jeb_(click to see animation).

If a sheep is named jeb_, its wool smoothly cycles through all dye colors in a similar manner to prismarine. This is purely a visual effect; the sheep still drops wool in its original color when sheared.

Breeding

An example of how a bred sheep inherits a mixture of its parents' colors when possible.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Main article: Breeding

Sheep can be bred with wheat, after which they spawn a baby sheep (or lamb). They cannot breed for about 5 minutes after the baby sheep appears. If the parents have 'compatible' wool colors (meaning that the corresponding dye items could be combined into a third dye color), the resulting lamb inherits a mix of their colors (e.g., blue sheep + white sheep = light blue lamb).‌^{[Java Edition only]} Otherwise, the lamb spawns with the same color as one of the parents, chosen randomly, regardless of whether one or both parents have been sheared.

The growth of baby sheep can be slowly accelerated using wheat. Each use takes 10% off the remaining time to grow up.

Data values

See also: Chunk format

Sheep have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

• Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
  • Additional fields for mobs that can breed see Template:Nbt inherit/breedable/template
  •  Sheared: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the sheep has been shorn.
  •  Color: The color of the sheep. Default is 0.

Sheep color

Main article: Sheep/DV

[edit]

Advancements

Main article: Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	—	minecraft:husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed pairs of each of these 14 mobs. Other breedable mobs, if any, are ignored for the advancement.	minecraft:husbandry/bred_all_animals

History

Java Edition Classic
October 25, 2009					First showcase of sheep on The Word of Notch. Red wool as a drop can be seen.
October 25, 2009					Video uploaded to YouTube of a sheep test.
0.28					Sheep were added, and drop mushrooms when killed. They also eat grass blocks, turning them into dirt. After eating a random amount of blocks, they regrow their wool.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		December 23, 2009, 1			Sheep no longer spawn naturally.
		February 3, 2010			Sheep now spawn again.
					Sheep spawn with no wool.
					Drop gray wool upon being hit.
					Sheep no longer drop mushrooms and don't eat grass.
		February 4, 2010, 2			Sheep now spawn with wool again.
February 19, 2010					Now drop nothing.[verify]
Java Edition Infdev
June 27, 2010					Sheep drop white instead of gray wool.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.2					In survival multiplayer, hitting sheep drops unobtainable wool. However, casting a fishing rod drops obtainable wool, while the sheep still appears to have wool.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Gray, light gray, and black sheep were added.
					Colored sheep drop their corresponding wool color.
1.4					Sheep can rarely spawn in the color pink or brown.
1.7					Sheep drop 2-4 wool when sheared.
					Sheep no longer drop wool when hit.
					Sheep drop one wool block when killed while not sheared.
1.8		?			Sheep flee when attacked.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Baby sheep were added.
					Sheep can now breed.
					Sheep have 4 hearts of health (formerly 5 hearts).
1.1		11w49a			Sheep eat grass blocks and tall grass in order to re-grow their wool again. As a counterbalance, shearing sheep yields 1-3 wool blocks instead of 2-4.
					Spawn eggs became available for sheep in Creative mode.
		11w50a			Baby sheep eat more than adult sheep.
1.2.1		12w07b			The sheep eating animation in multiplayer was fixed.
					Sheep have a new AI.
1.4.2		12w32a			Sheep from spawn eggs can now spawn naturally-colored sheep (white, gray, brown, pink, etc.)
		12w38a			Added new step sounds.
1.4.4		1.4.3-pre			Lambs have a mix of the parents' colors, if the parents' colors are 'compatible' (able to be crafted together as dyes).
1.7.4		13w48b			Sheep named as 'jeb_' cycles through all possible sheep colors in a fading rainbow effect. They still drop the color wool they were dyed last.
1.8		14w02a			Baby sheep growth can be accelerated using wheat.
		14w05b			Sheep's wool is no longer visible when they have the Invisibility effect.
		June 30, 2014			Ryan Holtz announces that he's adding mutton as a new drop from sheep.
		14w27a			Sheep drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton.
1.11		16w32a			Changed entity ID from Sheep to sheep.
1.12		17w06a			Sheep now look different when dyed to comply with the wool color changes.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0					Added sheep.
0.6.0					Added the overlay part of the sheep with wool on its head and body.
					Sheep now display their colors and can be dyed.
					Added baby animals, this includes sheep.
0.7.0					Sheep spawn eggs are in creative mode.
0.8.0		build 2			If a sheep is dyed a color other than white, the previously white patches on its face, along with the spots on its body when sheared, also change color (currently exclusive feature).
					Improved sheep AI.
0.9.0		build 3			Sheep now graze on tallgrass.
0.11.0		build 1			Sheep coloration is now applied through shaders, rather than different textures.
0.12.0					Sheep are no longer bred using a Feed button as of the release of the Windows 10 Edition.
0.14.0		build 1			Baby zombie jockeys now check for nearby sheep to mount prior to attacking the player, villager or golem.
					Sheep no longer spawn in snowy tundra biome and variants.
0.15.0		build 1			Sheep drop raw mutton and if killed with fire they drop cooked mutton.
					Sheep named as 'jeb_' cycle through all possible sheep colors in a fading rainbow effect. They still drop the color wool they were dyed last.
					Baby husk can mount sheep.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		?			Sheep are now dyed using a Dye button.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Sheep now look different when dyed to comply with the wool color changes.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Sheep now spawn in desert village shepherd houses.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Sheep can now spawn in plains, savanna, taiga, snowy taiga, and snowy tundra village shepherd house, butcher house, and animal pen.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added sheep.
TU5					Sheep run away when attacked.
TU7					Added baby sheep.
					Sheep can be bred with wheat.
TU9					Sheep 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 became available for sheep in Creative mode.
TU14		1.04			Baby sheep can now be spawned by using on an adult form of that mob using a spawn egg.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Sheep drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton.
					Baby sheep growth can be accelerated using wheat.

Prior colors

Java Edition

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Bedrock Edition

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Issues

Issues relating to "Sheep" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• 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 sheep to always spawn with a desired color, additional NBT tags can be applied to the spawner, utilizing the Color tag.
• Sheep can eat grass through partial blocks, and also while moving in minecarts.
• Sheep cannot fit through the gap if the 90 degree intersection of two fences is removed whereas the player (and most other mobs) can get through easily.
• An already dead sheep can be sheared (if it still has its wool) before its body turns into smoke and disappears, causing it to drop one wool and some mutton in addition to 1–3 more wool from the shearing.‌^{[Legacy Console Edition only]}
• While an evoker is not engaged in combat and /gamerule mobGriefing is set to true, it changes 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.

Gallery

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  The first screenshot on breeding released by Notch.

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  Dying sheep mob

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  Brown, light gray, gray, pink and black are 5 of the naturally spawning colors of a sheep.

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  A large flock of sheep.

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  A lamb with an adult.

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  The sheep grass-eating animation.

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  The lamb grass-eating animation.

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  Sheep that have been dyed by the player.

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  A jeb_ lamb.

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  The relative probabilities of naturally spawned sheep colors.

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  A sheared lamb next to its parent. Sheared lambs are only available via commands.

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  Snowy grass next to a patch of dirt that a sheep has eaten.

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  A sheep with a blue head.

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Bedrock Edition

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  The foot.

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  The sheep's color around their face and overlay when sheared corresponds their wool color.

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  Sheep before 0.6.0.

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  Pink sheep before 0.8.0

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  All of the possible sheep wool colors (dyed by the player.) Sheep have dyed wool remnants.

Official Artwork

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  Sheep as shown in the World of Color Update artwork

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References

Entities

View at: Template:Entities/content [edit]