Sheep

Sheep are passive mobs that supply wool and mutton.

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.

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) during world generation.

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

Drops
When killed, an adult sheep drops:
 * 1 of the corresponding color. Sheep that have not regrown their wool do not drop more wool.
 * 1–2 ( 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 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 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 )

If a sheep is dyed and then sheared, it retains its new dyed wool color after the wool regrows. $$, the wool patches seen on a sheared sheep always appear white regardless of their actual color. $$, 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
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


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

Prior colors
Java Edition

Trivia

 * If a sheep spawner is placed via, 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  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.
 * While an evoker is not engaged in combat and is set to , 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.