Animal Feeding Trough Mod (1.21.11, 1.20.6) – Automate Mob Breeding

Animal Feeding Trough is a utility mod that lets passive mobs automatically feed themselves from a placeable trough block, enabling hands-free animal breeding for Minecraft Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt.

Anyone who has built a large-scale animal farm in Minecraft knows the pain. You craft stacks of wheat, carrots, or seeds, then spend minutes clicking on every single cow, pig, or chicken to trigger breeding. It is repetitive, time-consuming, and pulls you away from actually building or exploring. Animal Feeding Trough by Slexom solves this problem with a single craftable block that automates the entire feeding process. With over 5.8 million downloads since its original release in February 2021, this mod has become one of the most popular quality-of-life additions for Minecraft farms. It works across four major mod loaders — Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt — and supports Minecraft versions stretching all the way back to 1.16.5.

Key Features of Animal Feeding Trough

• Automatic Mob Feeding — Animals that can be tempted by food will actively seek out a nearby feeding trough containing their favorite item. This means you no longer need to stand in your pen holding wheat and clicking on every cow individually. The mobs handle it themselves, freeing you to work on other parts of your world.
• Breed-Ready Behavior — When a mob eats from the trough, it enters love mode exactly as if a player had fed it by hand. Two animals of the same species near the same trough will breed and produce offspring naturally. This makes fully automated breeding farms possible without any redstone contraptions or complicated setups.
• Per-Species Food Recognition — The trough respects vanilla Minecraft feeding rules. Chickens look for seeds, pigs look for carrots, cows and sheep look for wheat, and so on. You control which species breeds by choosing what food to place inside, giving you precise control over your farm output without needing separate enclosures for every animal type.
• Simple Crafting Recipe — The feeding trough is crafted from basic materials available early in the game. You do not need rare resources or end-game items to start automating your farm. This low barrier to entry means you can set up automated breeding as soon as you have your first animal pen.
• Multi-Loader Support — Animal Feeding Trough runs on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt through the Architectury API. Whether you play on a heavily modded Forge server or a lightweight Fabric setup, you can add this mod without switching your entire mod loader. This cross-platform design is one reason it has accumulated millions of downloads.
• Companion Mod Available — A community-created addon called More Feeding Trough Variants by pnku adds additional trough designs and block variants. If aesthetics matter to your build, you can match the trough style to your barn or farm theme without sacrificing functionality.
• Lightweight and Non-Invasive — The mod adds a single block with straightforward AI behavior for nearby mobs. Based on its design, it appears to be lightweight and should not conflict with most other mods that modify animal behavior or farming mechanics.

Screenshots

How to Install Animal Feeding Trough

1. Install your preferred mod loader. You can use Fabric, Minecraft Forge, NeoForge, or Quilt Loader depending on your setup.
2. Download and install the Architectury API, which is a required dependency for Animal Feeding Trough. If you are playing on Minecraft versions older than 1.19 with Fabric, you will also need Fabric API.
3. Download the correct Animal Feeding Trough file for your Minecraft version and mod loader from the download section below.
4. Place the downloaded .jar file into your Minecraft mods folder. On Windows this is typically located at %appdata%.minecraftmods.
5. Launch Minecraft with your mod loader profile. Once in-game, craft a feeding trough and place it near your animals to start using it.

Requirements & Compatibility

Pros and Cons

Alternatives to Animal Feeding Trough

• Easy Villagers — Simplifies villager management and trading with portable villager blocks, a good companion if you want to automate all NPC-related tasks alongside animal breeding.
• Farming for Blockheads — Adds a full suite of farming utilities including market blocks, fertilizers, and feeding mechanics that expand agricultural automation beyond just animal breeding.
• More Feeding Trough Variants — A direct companion mod that adds decorative trough styles to match different build themes while retaining full compatibility with Animal Feeding Trough.

Download Animal Feeding Trough

Always download mods from official sources to stay safe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Animal Feeding Trough work with modded animals?

It depends on the modded animal. The trough works with any mob that uses vanilla temptation behavior, so modded animals that extend the standard Minecraft tempt AI should be compatible. Mods that implement completely custom feeding mechanics may not interact with the trough.

Can I use Animal Feeding Trough on a multiplayer server?

Yes — the mod works on both singleplayer and multiplayer servers. You need to install it on the server side along with the Architectury API dependency. Players connecting to the server do not necessarily need the mod installed client-side if the server handles it, though having it on both sides is recommended.

Does the feeding trough consume food items?

Yes, food is consumed each time an animal feeds from the trough. The trough behaves like a container — you place food items inside, and they are used up one at a time as mobs eat from it. You will need to refill it periodically, just as you would use food from your inventory when feeding by hand.

Is Animal Feeding Trough compatible with Minecraft 1.21.11?

Yes — version support for 1.21.11 is available on both Fabric and NeoForge loaders. The mod has been consistently updated since its initial release in 2021, with the most recent update in December 2025 covering the latest Minecraft versions.

Do I need both Architectury API and Fabric API?

Only if you are playing on Minecraft versions older than 1.19 with Fabric. For Minecraft 1.19 and newer, the Architectury API alone is the required dependency regardless of your mod loader. On NeoForge and Forge, Fabric API is never needed.

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