Sheep (2024)

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.

If a sheep monster 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 monster 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 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 can't 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 (but not tall grass), making it disappear, and grass blocks, changing them into dirt blocks. In Bedrock Edition, they can also eat ferns. 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 every other 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.^[2] The wool texture on the sheep's face also always appear white regardless of their actual color.

Easter eggs[]

An evoker can also change a sheep's wool color if the evoker is unengaged 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.

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 unnamed.

Breeding[]

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.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data[]

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

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Java Edition:

Achievements[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Trader Llama Turtle Wolf A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed a pair of each of these 24 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	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					Notch uploaded a video to YouTube of a sheep test.
0.28					Added sheep.
					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.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091223-1			Sheep no longer spawn naturally.
		20100203			Sheep now spawn again.
					Sheep now spawn without wool.
					Sheep now drop either 1 Flint and Steel, or 1-3 string, gunpowder, or feathers. These drops were the same for the other mobs.
					Sheep no longer drop mushrooms.
					Sheep no longer eat grass.
20100211					Sheep now have unique idle and hurt sounds. Previously, they have no idle sounds, and use the player's hurt sound.
					Sheep now spawn with wool again.
					Sheep now drop 1-3 white, gray and light gray wool upon being hit.
20100219					Sheep now do not drop anything.
20100223					Sheep now only drop light gray wool when hit.
Java Edition Infdev
20100624					Sheep now drop white instead of light 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					Sheep can now be dyed - players can now dye sheep to make light gray, gray, black, brown, red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, light blue, blue, purple, magenta, and pink sheep.
					Colored sheep now drop their corresponding wool color.
					Sheep can now spawn in the color gray, light gray, or black.
1.4					Sheep can now rarely spawn in the color pink or brown.
1.7					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.
1.8		Pre-release			Sheep now flee when attacked.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Added baby sheep.
					Sheep can now breed.
					Sheep now have 4 hearts of health (formerly 5 hearts).
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Baby sheep from dyed parents are now born dyed instead of always being white.
1.1		11w49a			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.[3]
					Spawn eggs are available for sheep in creative mode.
		11w50a			Baby sheep now eat more than adult sheep.
1.2.1		12w07b			The sheep eating animation in multiplayer has been fixed.
					Sheep now 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 to sheep.
					Added a sound for shearing sheep.
					Sheep idle sounds now play entirely. Previously, say3 was cut.
1.4.4		1.4.3			Baby sheep now have a mix of the parents' colors, if the parents' colors are 'compatible' (able to be crafted together as dyes).
					The colors of sheep have been changed.
1.7.4		13w48b			Sheep named as 'jeb_' cycles now 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 now 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 now drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton.
1.10		16w20a			Sheep no longer spawn in ice plains biomes.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Sheep to sheep.
1.12		17w06a			Sheep now look different when dyed to comply with the wool color changes.
					The colors of baby sheep have been changed.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of sheep have been changed.
					The textures of sheep named 'jeb_' have been changed.
					The textures of baby sheep have been changed.
					Sheep can now be sheared using dispensers.
1.15		19w37a			5% of sheep now spawn as babies.
1.17		21w03a			Added a sound for dyeing sheep.
1.18		experimental snapshot 2			Sheep now spawn in mountain meadows.
		21w39a			Sheep now eat half as often, due to the chance to start eating being evaluated every other game tick rather than every game tick.[4]
1.20 (Experimental)		23w07a			Sheep now spawn in cherry groves.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0					Added sheep.
					Sheep can be sheared.
					Baby sheep have also been added, though there is currently no way to get them to spawn.
v0.6.0					Added the overlay part of the sheep with wool on its head and body.
					Sheep now display their colors and can be dyed.
					Baby sheep now spawn naturally.
v0.6.1					The model of the sheep fur has been changed.[5]
v0.7.0					Sheep spawn eggs are now in creative mode.
v0.8.0		build 1			If a sheep is dyed a color other than white, the wool color on its face also changes to match the rest of its body.
					When a sheep is sheared, the spots on its body now also change color (currently an exclusive feature).
					Sheep can now breed.
					The sheep AI has been improved.
v0.9.0		build 3			Sheep now graze on tallgrass.
v0.11.0		build 1			Sheep coloration is now applied through shaders, rather than different textures.
v0.12.0					Sheep are no longer bred using a Feed button as of the release of the Windows 10 Edition.[verify]
v0.14.0		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 the snowy plains biome and its variants.
v0.15.0		build 1			Sheep now drop raw mutton and if killed with fire, they drop cooked mutton.
					Sheep named as 'jeb_' cycle now through all possible sheep colors in a fading rainbow effect. They still drop the color wool they were dyed last.
					Baby husks can now mount sheep.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Sheep are now dyed using a Dye button.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The textures of sheep have been changed. Sheep now look different when dyed to comply with the wool color changes.
					The textures of baby sheep have been changed.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of sheep have been changed.
					The textures of sheep named 'jeb_' have been changed.
					The textures of baby sheep have been changed.
					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 houses, butcher houses, and animal pens.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.20.27			Sheep no longer spawn in snowy taigas.
		Release			Reverted the sheep spawning change made in beta 1.18.20.27.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added sheep.
					Sheep can be sheared.
TU5					Sheep now run away when attacked.
TU7					Added baby sheep.
					Sheep can now be bred using wheat.
TU9					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.
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 now drop raw mutton and—if killed with fire—they drop cooked mutton.
					Baby sheep growth can now be accelerated using wheat.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added sheep.
					Added baby sheep.

Issues[]

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

Gallery[]

Colors[]

Renders[]

• 

  A white baby sheep that has been sheared (sheared baby sheep are only available through commands)

• 

  A jeb_ sheep.

• 

  A jeb_ baby sheep.

• 

  The Secret Sheep, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.

Screenshots[]

• 

  The first screenshot on breeding released by Notch.

• 

  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.

• 

  Sheep that have been dyed by the player.

• 

  The relative probabilities of naturally spawned sheep colors.

• 

  A sheared baby sheep next to its parent. (sheared baby sheep are available only via commands)

• 

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

• 

  A sheep with a blue head.

• 

• 

  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.

• 

  The foot of a sheep.

• 

  The sheep's color around their face and overlay when sheared corresponds to their wool color in Bedrock Edition.

• 

  A sheep before Pocket Edition Alpha 0.6.0.

• 

  Pink sheep before Pocket Edition Alpha 0.8.0.

• 

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

• 

  A yellow sheep during Pocket Edition Alpha 0.7.1.

Cosmetics[]

• 

  Sheep Man, a skin included in the second Legacy Console skin pack.

• 

  A naked version of Sheep Man from the same pack.

• 

  Top Hat Sheep, a skin featured in the 1st Birthday skin pack.

• 

  The "Mummy Sheep," featured in the Halloween Edition mash-up pack and Minecraft Mini-Series.

In other media[]

• 

  Artwork of a sheep alongside Steve and a pig.

• 

  Various dyed sheep as shown in the World of Color Update artwork.

• 

  A brown sheep in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.

• 

  A sheep in official artwork for the Education Edition.

• 

  A Sheep as it appears in Minecraft Story Mode.

• 

  Concept art of an Inky Sheep, a unique variation of sheep featured in Minecraft Earth.

• 

  A Sheep as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons.

• 

  Sheep pictured in the Mobestiary.

• 

  LEGO minifigure of cyan sheep.

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  LEGO minifigure of purple lamb.

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  A "Super Cute" Sheep from the 18th line of Minecraft Mini-Figures.

• 

  Baby sheep plush made by JINX.

• 

  "My Base is Your Base," an official T-Shirt design featuring a build of a red sheep.

References[]