Animal Feed Guard

2.0.0 targets Valheim 1.0, built and checked against 1.0.16. Use the 1.x releases for Ashlands.

Animal Feed Guard keeps dropped food on the ground when a living, tamed animal that can eat it is nearby. Manual pickup remains available.

Features

• Configurable protection radius: 0–50 metres; default 5 metres.
• Uses each animal's actual food list, including seeds, barley, and modded feed.
• Protects food even when the animal is already fed.
• Applies only to automatic pickup; manual pickup is unchanged.
• Client-side settings; install it on every player's client who wants protection.
• Compatible with AutoPicker's normal pickup path.

Configuration

The config file is BepInEx/config/com.ziluck.valheim.animalfeedguard.cfg.

Enabled controls the feature. Protection Radius controls the distance from the dropped item to an eligible tamed animal. A radius of 0 disables protection.

Recommended optional mods

• ConfigurationManager — edit the settings in game instead of opening the config file. It is optional.
• AutoPicker — optional compatibility; Animal Feed Guard does not require it.

Links

• Source, documentation, and issue tracker

Check out my other mods

• Hen Egg Pickup — automatically collects chicken eggs once enough adult hens are nearby.

• Ranching - Chick Addon — adds configurable chick growth and growth percentage hover text to Ranching.

If you'd like to support ongoing modding work, Ko-fi is available.

Requires BepInExPack Valheim. Ranching and AutoPicker are optional.

Changelog

2.0.3 - 2026-10-06

• Share food matching between protection and pickup diagnostics.
• Add simulated filter checks and tests for diet enumeration, branch labels, and exception boundaries.
• Include every check project in dependency updates.
• Maintainer confirmed the current build works as intended in game.

2.0.2

• Increase the default feed protection radius from 5 to 25 metres.
• Preserve existing configured radii; set Protection Radius to 25 to use the new default with an existing config.

2.0.1

• Measure feed protection from the animal's body collider instead of its origin, with an origin fallback.
• Read synchronized tame state through ownership changes and recheck live creature state and diet for each item.
• Add optional, rate-limited pickup diagnostics.
• Audit all installed 1.0.16 feeding prefabs, including Asksvin Smokepuffs and Deep North creatures.
• Add regression coverage for all 48 creature/food pairs and actual pickup-transpiler IL.
• Prepare a test ZIP; live regression testing remains pending.

2.0.0

• Formally target Valheim 1.0; compiled and checked against 1.0.16.
• Require BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350.
• Add GitHub Actions builds and automatic publication of new versions from main.
• Add Hexium publishing scaffolding, disabled until DocZee is approved.
• Keep plugin IDs and configuration files stable for existing installations.

1.0.0

• Added configurable automatic pickup protection for food near living tamed animals.
• Match each animal's actual food list, including seeds and modded feed.
• Preserve manual pickup and normal pickup outside the protection radius.
• Inspect compatibility with AutoPicker 1.1.3's ground pickup path.
• Client-side settings; no dedicated-server installation required.

Build and automated code checks passed. Live gameplay testing is still pending.