How to apply dye to mobs in Minecraft

It's not uncommon for Minecraft players to want a little extra color in their world. This is where dyes come into the picture.

Dyes come in a large range of colors and can be applied in many different ways. They can be used to dye wool and terracotta, stain glass blocks and panes, and to color firework stars. Dyes can even be applied to certain mobs that are compatible with it.

Sheep, tamed wolves and cats can be affected by dyes in the game, albeit in different ways.

Dyes can be applied on sheep to change the color of their wool. They can also be used on a tamed wolf or cat to change the color of its collar from the original red to the color of the dye.

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Using dyes on mobs in Minecraft

A varied assortment of sheep with different wool colorations (Image via Mojang)

Dyeing a mob is incredibly easy in Minecraft. But before doing so, players will need some dyes.

Dyes can be created from different crafting components in the game, including squid ink sacs, lapis lazuli/cornflower, cocoa beans, cactus, and poppy. Once players have dye in their inventory, they'll need to put it in their character's hands. This is usually done by placing the dye in their toolbar and then selecting it.

Once the dye is on-hand, players simply need to seek out their desired mob. As previously stated, applicable mobs in vanilla Minecraft include sheep, tamed wolves and cats. When the mob is nearby, players need to place their crosshair over the mob. They can either right-click or press the use button on console to dye the desired mob.

The color of a sheep or a wolf/cat collar can always be changed at a later date by applying a different-colored dye. This keeps players' customization options open in the future.

With a burgeoning number of dye colors available through the use of mods or through content updates via Mojang, players have a huge range of customizations.

Dyeing sheep, in particular, can provide players with a huge variety of wool colors after shearing. This leads to an expanded decoration capability, allowing players to create new structures with multi-colored wool blocks.

Outside of mobs, dyes can be used to stain glass windows, dye terracotta blocks, and color beds and concrete powder for concrete blocks. For aspiring Minecraft decorators, the applications of dye broaden what they can create considerably.