Backported Animal Variants
by AkacioBahno
With Backported Animal Variants, cold and warm versions of chickens, pigs and cows appear in the world, and the cow and sheep models are updated.
What it does
Cold chickens lay blue eggs, cold pigs and cold cows join the world as separate variants, and warm chickens lay brown eggs. Warm pigs and warm cows complete the set. Cow models follow the mooshroom update, and sheep textures are redone to match the newer look, so the animals on a farm look closer to the later releases.
The mod is for world generation on modded and vanilla worlds, and it is most useful to players who want the animal look from newer versions while staying on 1.20.1 or 1.21.1. Forge and NeoForge are supported, and the same builds run on client and server, so the server and every player need the mod. Files are published for 1.20.1 and 1.21.1 and the license is the MIT License, which is not open source.
Spring to Life Backport covers a broader set of backported features on the same range, and is open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only.
Key features
Cold chicken variant
Cold chickens are added to the world and lay blue eggs instead of white ones.
Warm chicken variant
Warm chickens are added to the world and lay brown eggs.
Cold and warm pigs and cows
Cold and warm variants of pigs and cows spawn alongside the regular animals.
Updated cow and sheep models
The cow model follows the mooshroom update, and sheep use redone textures.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Farm worlds on 1.20.1 or 1.21.1
A farm in these versions can hold the newer animal variants without moving to a later game release.
Multiplayer servers
Server owners install the mod on the server and every player's client so the variants match on both sides.
Who it’s for: Players and server owners on Forge or NeoForge who want the newer animal variants in 1.20.1 or 1.21.1 worlds.
How it compares
Spring to Life Backport runs on Fabric, Forge and NeoForge for 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 with the same client and server environment, and it is open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only. Barnyard Buddies also targets 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 on Forge and NeoForge, is not open source and is under All rights reserved. Backported Animal Variants is published for Forge and NeoForge only, under the MIT License, which is not open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backported Animal Variants | Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2025-05-01 |
| Spring to Life Backport | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-03-23 |
| Barnyard Buddies | Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-04-10 |
Questions
Does Backported Animal Variants need to be on the server?
Which loaders does Backported Animal Variants support?
Which game versions have files?
In the catalog
Backported Animal Variants is one of 8,515 World generation mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,058 World generation mods for Forge. 32,366 mods support Minecraft 1.21.1.
More from AkacioBahno
Similar mods
What the author says
Adds farm animal variants and updated cow model introduced in 1.21.5: - Cold Chicken (and its Blue Egg) - Cold Pig - Cold Cow - Warm Chicken (and its Brown Egg) - Warm Pig - Warm Cow - Cow, Mooshroom model update - Sheep texture update
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/backported-animal-variants
- Owner
- AkacioBahno
- Published
- 2025-03-02
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2025-05-01
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15