Sheep

**Sheep** are one of the most plentiful and useful mobs encountered in *Minecraft*. They can often be found wandering aimlessly throughout the Overworld. The main purpose of sheep is to supply Wool and Raw Mutton as of 1.8.

## Appearance

An adult sheep measures about 1.25 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide, and 1.4375 blocks long. Like sheep in the real world, they walk on all fours. Sheep naturally spawn with white, Brown, Black, Gray, Light Gray, and very rarely, Pink wool. However, the majority of sheep spawn with white wool. In order of rarity, natural sheep colors occur as follows:

* **White** (82.8%)
* **Brown** (3%)
* **Black** (5%)
* **Light Gray** (5%)
* **Gray** (5%)
* **Pink** (0.2%)

Through Dyeing, it is also possible to change a sheep's wool to the following colors:

* **Red**

* **Orange**
* **Yellow**
* **Lime Green**
* **Cactus Green**
* **Light Blue**
* **Cyan**
* **Blue**
* **Magenta**
* **Purple**

### Rainbow Sheep

Sheep named "jeb\_" with a Name Tag are a new type of sheep released in update 1.7.4. Disco sheep (also called Jeb sheep and rainbow sheep) can be created when a player names a spawn egg "jeb\_", or by using a name tag to name an existing sheep "jeb\_". When the sheep spawns, it's wool will constantly cycle through the 16 possible colors with a fading rainbow effect.

Despite popular rumors, the color of wool a disco sheep will drop is unaffected by its rainbow coloring. Instead, it will drop wool of its original color before the rainbow effect was added.

## Behavior

Sheep are passive mobs that wander around the overworld. When they encounter an obstacle, they will often try to jumpover it (sometimes even when the obstacle cannot be overcome). They run away when attacked. They will make no attempt to stay out of Water, and it is common to see several sheep bobbing in the water, along with other animals. Sheep often Spawn in groups of 2–8. All sheep behave the same, regardless of color.

Naturally, sheep will roam around and eat Grass. When a sheep eats grass, they make a crunching sound similar to that of placing down or walking on a Dirt block. After consuming grass, the block the sheep has eaten from will become bare dirt, until grass regrows on it. In the case of Tall Grass, the block will just vanish. However, if `/gamerule mobGriefing` is set to *false*, the block will stay as grass and not change to dirt.

## Farming

Sheep can easily be farmed by placing them within a Fenced area since they cannot jump out. Sheep will follow a player while

Wheat

is held in their hand. They can be difficult to 'corral' into a fenced area without wheat because they tend to run to the nearest opening in the fence or exit through a hole.

One method to capturing sheep is to dig a 2-block-deep hole. Make it as wide as desired. Sheep can be pushed in, led in with wheat, or one can simply wait for them to fall in themselves. Lure them to an underground producing station (or somewhere with a roof over it) to keep wolves away. Pigs, cows, and many other land mobs can be caught in this way as well.

When a sheep is sheared, their skin will be exposed and polka-dotted white. The patches are always white, regardless of the color of the wool. Their ears are also exposed at the sides of their heads. Sheep will regrow their wool sometime after they have been sheared, though, in order for them to do this, they will need to eat grass or tall grass. Sunlight must also reach the area where they are penned in. It can easily be told when a sheep has re-grown its wool as its appearance will change from the patchy "shorn" look to normal.

Dyes can be applied directly to sheep, and shearing colored sheep produces dyed wool blocks of the corresponding color. This can be a more efficient method for dyeing wool for building projects since sheep drop up to three wool blocks when sheared. Sheep can be dyed any color by right-clicking them while dye is held in hand.

## Breeding

Sheep can be multiplied by feeding two sheep, that are standing close to each other,

Wheat

. A baby **Lamb** is produced, which has a big head and small body, like other baby mobs. If killed, lambs drop nothing, and wool can only be obtained from them after they grow into adults. If two parent sheep are of the same color, they produce a lamb of the same color. For example, if two sheep are dyed Red,and they are bred then their lamb will be a red sheep as well. Breeding two different colored sheep will either create a white sheep, a sheep of one the parent's colors, or a mixture of the two.

## Drops

* 1 Wool when killed by a player, 3 if sheared
* Raw Mutton( Cooked Mutton) if the sheep dies while on fire)