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% will 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. Like other farm animals, they will not spawn in snowy tundras, but still spawn in snowy taigas. 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
Sheep drop:
 * 1 of the corresponding color when killed.
 * If sheared, it drops 1-3 wool instead of 1 wool.
 * 1-2 pieces of (1-2 pieces of  if the sheep dies while on fire)
 * Wool drop is not affected by Looting.
 * Meat drop is affected by Looting.
 * Sheep will also drop 1 to 7 experience when breeding and 1 to 3 experience upon death.
 * Lambs drop nothing when killed.

Behavior
Sheep act like most passive mobs; they wander around aimlessly, avoiding falling off cliffs high enough to cause damage, and usually staying out of water or lava. They can be heard bleating occasionally. They will try to jump over obstacles one block high, which causes strange and somewhat humorous behavior near fences, walls and similar blocks. Sheep will follow a player holding wheat within a radius of 8 blocks, but will 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, and can be sheared the same way when holding shears. Sheared sheep cannot be dyed until their wool grows back.

They will retain their wool color if it has been dyed before it was sheared, although the wool patches seen on a sheared sheep will be white regardless of their actual color. However, in the Bedrock, they will be dyed accordingly, and the white patches on the face will also be dyed.

The color of sheep is permanant and inherited to lambs. (see )

Eating grass
Sheep will eat grass blocks (turning them into dirt) and grass (destroying them). When they do this in sunlight (they do not require a direct view of the sky, but they do require it to be daytime), their wool grows back (after being sheared). This means that if there is no grass anywhere, a sheep cannot regrow its wool after being sheared. They can't eat grass with tall grass on it, but can eat the tall grass, making it disappear. They can then get to the grass next time they try to eat there. If an adult sheep has the opportunity, the chance of starting to eat grass is 1 in 1000 per game tick (1 in 50 regarding baby sheeps).

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

jeb_ sheep
If a sheep is named jeb_, its wool will smoothly cycle through all dye colors in a similar manner to prismarine.

Note: This is only a visual effect, as when it is sheared, the sheep will drop the same color of wool that it actually is.

Breeding


Sheep can be bred with wheat, after which they will spawn a baby sheep (or lamb). However, they will not be able to breed for about 5 minutes after the baby sheep is spawned. If the parents have 'compatible' wool colors (meaning that the corresponding dye items could be combined into a third dye color), the resulting lamb will be a mix of their colors (e.g., blue sheep + white sheep = light blue lamb). Otherwise, the lamb will be the same color as one of the parents, chosen at random. It doesn't matter if either parent, 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.

The sheep will always share its color with one of its parents.

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 will appear 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 will 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.