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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, dark gray, and black sheep 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 0.164% chance of naturally spawning.

Natural generation

Sheep spawn on grass blocks at light level of 9 or more with at least 2 block space above. They often spawn in flocks of 4 during world generation.

Drops

Sheep drop 1 wool when killed, while shearing woolly sheep will drop 1 to 3 wool. The wool dropped will be the same color as the sheep's wool. The rates and amounts of both drops is not affected by looting.

In the computer edition, console edition, Wii U edition and PS Vita edition, sheep also drop 1–2 raw mutton. The maximum amount of meat dropped can be increased by 1 per level of Looting, up to a maximum of 5 when using Looting III. If the sheep dies while on fire, the mutton will be cooked.

Sheep will also drop 1 to 7 experience when breeding and 1 to 3 experience upon death.

Lambs, like other baby animals, do not drop items or experience. They also cannot be sheared for their wool.

Behavior

Sheep are 1.25 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide and 1.4375 blocks long.

Sheep act like most passive mobs; they wander around aimlessly, usually avoiding falling off cliffs high enough to cause damage, and usually staying out of water. 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, but will cease following if the player moves more than approximately 5 blocks away from the sheep.

Sheep's wool can be dyed by pressing the use key while holding any dye, and can be sheared the same way when holding shears.

Sheep will eat grass blocks (turning them into dirt) and tall grass (destroying them). When they do this, their wool grows back. This means that if there is no grass anywhere, a sheep cannot regain its wool after being sheared. 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 Pocket Edition, they will be dyed accordingly, and the white patches on the face will also be dyed.

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

SheepBreedingColor

An example of how a bred sheep will be a mixture of its parents' colors when possible.

Main article: Breeding

Sheep can be bred with wheat, after which they spawn a baby sheep (or lamb), and cannot breed for 5 minutes. 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 has 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. Their entity ID is Sheep.

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

Sheep color

Main article: Sheep/DV
[edit]

Video

Sheep/video

History

s
October 24, 2009Video uploaded to YouTube of a sheep test.
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST 11Sheep were added, and they were originally planned to drop meat when killed.[1]
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST 12Sheep now graze on grass, turning it into a dirt block. After eating three blocks, they will regrow their wool.
Sheep now drop white cloth instead of red.
Sheep now drop mushrooms when killed.
0.30Sheep are now in public survival mode.
a
1.1.0Sheep drop 1-3 wool when hit instead of always dropping 2.
1.2.2In SMP, hitting sheep will drop unobtainable wool. However, casting a fishing rod will drop obtainable wool, while the sheep still appears to have wool.
b
1.2Gray, light gray, and black sheep were added.
Colored sheep drop their corresponding wool color.
1.4Sheep can rarely spawn in the color pink or brown.
1.7Sheep drop 2-4 wool when sheared.
Sheep no longer drop wool when hit.
Sheep drop one wool block when killed while not sheared.
Baby sheep were added.
1.8Sheep will run away when attacked.
r
1.0.0Beta 1.9-pre3Sheep can now breed.
Sheep have 4 hearts of health (formerly 5 hearts).
1.111w49aSheep 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.[2]
Spawn eggs became available for sheep in Creative mode.
11w50aBaby sheep eat more than adult sheep.
1.2.112w07bThe sheep eating animation in SMP was fixed.
Sheep have a new AI.
1.4.212w32aSheep from spawn eggs can now spawn naturally-colored sheep (white, gray, brown, pink, etc.)
12w38aAdded new step sounds.
1.4.4Lambs will have a mix of the parents' colors, if the parents' colors are 'compatible' (able to be crafted together as dyes).
1.7.413w48bSheep named as 'jeb_' will cycle through all possible sheep colors in a fading rainbow effect. They will still drop the color wool they were dyed last.
1.814w02aBaby sheep growth can be accelerated using wheat.
June 30, 2014Ryan Holtz announces that he's adding mutton as a new drop from sheep.
14w27aSheep drop raw mutton and—if killed while on fire—they will drop cooked mutton.
pa
0.2.0Added sheep
0.6.0Fixed the overlay for a sheep with wool on its head.
Sheep now display their colors and can be dyed.
Added baby animals, this includes sheep.
0.7.0Sheep spawn eggs are in creative mode.
0.8.0build 2If 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, will also change color (currently exclusive feature).
Improved sheep AI.
0.9.0build 3Sheep now eat tall grass.
0.11.0build 1Sheep coloration is now applied through shaders, rather than different textures.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Added sheep.
TU5Sheep will run away when attacked.
TU7Added baby sheep.
Sheep can be bred with wheat.
TU9Sheep 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 Left trigger on an adult form of that mob using a spawn egg.
TU31CU19 1.22 Sheep drop raw mutton and—if killed while on fire—they will drop cooked mutton.
Baby sheep growth can be accelerated using wheat.

Issues

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

Trivia

  • If a sheep spawner is placed via /setblock, there will be a black sheep model spinning inside, and it will spawn only naturally spawning sheep colors; unless you add custom NBT tags to determine color. If custom NBT tags are added to determine color a white sheep still has the usual chance of being a different color.
  • When throwing a potion of invisibility at a sheep, the sheep's head and legs will disappear, but the wool won't.
  • 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.
  • When a sheep dies, you still able to shear it until it disappears and turns into smoke.
  • When a sheep is spawned on a fence, it will not fall off the fence but it can move to any adjacent fences. You can make it fall off the fence by leading it off with wheat.
    • When a sheep is spawned on a wall, it will fall into it.
  • Since the addition of mutton the sheep is the last of the original 4 farm animals to drop meat.
  • When shearing a jeb_ sheep it will drop the color wool it was before being renamed.
  • The sheep has the most visual versions of any mob having all dye colors, all dye colors as a baby, a baby, the Jeb version, and the sheared version.

Gallery

Pocket Edition

References


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