Minecraft Mobs: Sheep
Sheep are passive mobs in Minecraft. The passive mobs never attack a player. These mobs except squids require land to spawn on. It will supply wool when sheared or killed and can be dyed with any of 16 colors before shearing to produce colored wool. They are 1.25 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide and 1.4375 blocks long; pigs naturally spawn in following colors: white, black, gray, light gray, brown, and pink. By killing an adult sheep will drop a block of wool, by shearing them it will drop 1-3 blocks each time. Killing lamb gives nothing. The Sheep got 8 health points.
Most Sheep have got white wool; others are naturally spawned in black, gray, light gray, brown, and pink wool. They have light tan skin. Wool is easiest to obtain from sheep, as it can be tedious to craft wool using string. Wool can be obtained from sheep by using Shears on the sheep or killing the sheep. Shearing a sheep will produce 1-3 wool. If you have an enchanted sword with fire aspect it is possible to shear a sheep as it dies from fire damage and produce more wool than usual. As of version 1.1.0 sheep regrow wool by eating grass and turning the grass block into a dirt block; they can also eat tall grass. Lambs eat grass much faster than adults. The sheep’s head also moves down and wiggles to imitate eating, but a lamb’s head goes inside the dirt itself. Sheep will drop 1 wool when killed even if they are killed by Fire, Cacti, or Wolves. Wool can also be crafted using 4 pieces of String, but it is less hazardous for the player to shear sheep rather than hunt down Spiders constantly. A block of white wool can be crafted with a unit of dye to produce colored wool. However, a much more efficient method is to apply the unit of dye directly to an un-sheared sheep by right-clicking on a sheep (any color) while holding it. The dyed sheep can drop 1-3 blocks of colored wool when sheared. When the dyed sheep regrows its wool it will retain the dyed color, supplying an endless supply of colored wool.
Like other passive land mobs, sheep wander around aimlessly, often spawning in flocks of 28. They can be heard bleating occasionally, even from some distance away. When they encounter an obstacle, they will often try to jump over it, even if the object is too tall to jump over. Sheep can swim and make no attempt to stay out of water; therefore a common sight might be several sheep bouncing up and down in the water. A sheep’s color has no effect on its behavior. Sheep will eat grass, turning it into dirt. This will make their wool grow back if they are sheared. The regrown wool will be of the same color as before the sheep was sheared, regardless of the original color. Packs of wolves may attack the occasional individual loner.
How to breed a Sheep in Minecraft
Breeding two sheep will produce a lamb of the same color as one of the parents. The color is more likely to be that of the parent fed wheat first. No mixed colors will occur. It doesnt matter if either parent has been sheared. This can be used to obtain large quantities of colored wool, rather than relying on potential rare dyes.
Warnings
- A very rare glitch where a sheep can get stuck in the ground can happen. This seems to happen because the sheep is a little bit taller than 1 block.
- A bug where sheep jump up to about 6 or 7 blocks high and/or they can glitch through fences (confirmation acquired).
- There is an unofficial bug (confirmed on SMP) that if a closed off area has too many sheep, and then some of them may “squeeze” through the walls. This only works if the walls are 1 block depth.
- In Pocket Edition, all sheep appear white, although when sheared can produce black, gray, or white wool.
Note
- Sheep were the second mob to spawn with both a separate body and armor file, the first being the pig; the sheep’s “armored” state is wooly, while the pig’s “armored” state is when they are wearing a saddle.
- Sheep were the last mob added in Survival Test.
- After being sheared, all sheep (regardless of their original color), will have remnants of white wool color on their head and legs.
- Sheared sheep have a more slender head and exposed ears.
- If you damage the sheep 7 hits (3 1/2 hearts) you can get 5 wool blocks by clicking both mouse buttons at the same time while holding shears, though it requires practice as you have 1/20 of a second between each mouse click.
- Sheep are the only mobs that give a block as a drop; all other mobs give items.
- If a sheep spawner is placed via hacking, there will be a black sheep model spinning inside, but it will spawn only white sheep.
- Lambs cannot be sheared.
- Currently, if one were to sprint and knock back a sheep while the sheep is in its grass eating stance, it will eat the grass it gets knocked into, and it will take no attempt to run away after/while eating.
- Sheep will eat grass through half slabs.
- The bottoms of the feet to sheep arent rotated 180 degrees. A sheep hoof is split in the front.
- Sheep can be “herded”. If you have wheat in your hand, sheep will follow you around, making it easy to herd them into a pen (also works with cows).
- Sheep can still eat grass even while moving in minecarts.
- Sheep cannot fit through the gap if the 90 degree intersection of two fences is removed whereas the player can get through easily. This means you can have a sheep pen without needing a fence gate.
- Before shears were added, you can obtain wool by punching the sheep. This was later changed as Shears were added but you can obtain them by killing the sheep.
- Sheep are able to climb ladders.
- Lambs grow seemingly faster than piglets.
- Sheep can eat grass through fallen snow.
- In Pocket Edition, a sheep’s head is always a rectangular prism shape, similar to when sheared in other games.