GB2149285A - Feeder device for rabbits - Google Patents

Abstract

A feeder device comprises a lower feeding dish (1) and an upper hopper (2) for granular foodstuff. Both the dish (1) and hopper (2) have two flat sides (3) and an arcuate third side (6 or 10). In use the flat sides abut walls adjacent the corner of a cage so that animals therein have access only to the side (6) of the dish (1). The upper edge of the side (6) is reinforced with a metal strip to prevent that side from being gnawed. The dish (1) and hopper (2) are made from a suitable plastics material. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Feeder device for animals This invention refers to a feeder device for animals, which presents a particular design offering a considerable advantage over known feeders designed for this purpose.

The feeder of the invention presents as its main characteristic a special configuration of a triangular shape to adapt to the angle or internal corners of a cage in which it will be fitted.

Although in principle, the feeder of the invention may be used for any animals it is specially intended for use by rabbits.

The triangular configuration and consequent adaptability of the feeder to the corners of cages deprives the animals of access to the edges of the feeder, thus making it impossible for the said edges to be gnawed, as they abut on to the cage walls.

Another advantageous characteristic for the feeder consists of the fact that it is formed by two parts which join together, one of them being a feed dish and the other being a hopper for supplying a granulated feed.

At present, feeders for rabbits are manufactured from metallic materials to prevent them from being gnawed by the rabbits, which makes those feeders very expensive and very heavy and awkward for transport and storage.

It should also be noted that the said conventional feeders are rectangular in shape and only one animal at a time can eat from them properly.

In order to alleviate all these drawbacks, the feeder of the invention was conceived, and is of suitable tough plastics material which is light and at the same time hard, and consists of two parts which fit together and which may be stacked separately or together in transport and storage, taking up the minimum of volume and being light and easy to handle.

Both the part constituting the dish and the part constituting the hopper have a quadrant plan. The dish has two of its sides flat, and an arcuate third side over whose top edge the animals will have access for feeding. The bottom of the dish is provided with a number of orifices for dust present in the feed material to fall through, although this bottom may alternatively be constituted by a mesh or any other surface on which the feed may be placed and which will allow the dust to fall through.

The top edge of the arcuate side of the dish is reinforced by a metal section which projects inwards in a curved manner, both to prevent it being gnawed by the rabbits, and for greater ease of their feeding.

The hopper has a plan shape similar to that of the dish but is considerably deeper, and its arcuate side presents, from approximately half its height a concave curvature, defining a progressive narrowing of the hopper towards its lower part. The hopper is mounted above the feeder so that flat faces of these parts are aligned, both parts being secured together by conventional and suitable means so that their flat faces can abut adjacent walls of one corner of a cage.

The extent of the arcuate side of the dish allows two or three animals to feed at the same time.

One may deduce from the foregoing that the device may be manufactured and marketed at a low cost. Furthermore, owing to its ability to fit close to the cage walls, free edges are avoided, thus preventing the flat faces from being gnawed by the rabbits, as the only edge accessible to them is that of the arcuate side of the dish and as this is reinforced by the metallic section, it is prevented from being gnawed. Furthermore because this metal edge is projected inwards, the fall and loss of feed is prevented.

The device may be easily cleaned or washed and disinfected owing to the material from which it is constructed and owing to the holes at the bottom of the dish.

The shape of the hopper allows a greater capacit of content of feed material, and at the same time it does not at all hinder the introduction of the rabbits' heads over the dish.

The union of the hopper and dish may be effected by heat sealing, adhesive, nuts and bolts, and so forth; and both the said hopper and the dish are designed so that the hoppers may fit into each other when stacked, like cones or wafers, taking up the minimum of volume and allowing economy of transport and a very small storage space.

Furthermore, the lower discharge opening of the hopper is separated from the bottom of the dish to such an extent that the feed (preferably granulated) will flow from the hopper, as the animals consume the said feed, which will slide towards the front of the dish owing to an inclination of the bottom of the said dish.

With the device described above, it has been found that the rabbits in no case gnaw the curved surfaces, as in order to gnaw they need a point of purchase such as the side edges, and in fact this did happen with known feeders. In the present invention these abut on to the walls of the cage so that animals cannot begin to gnaw.

As a variant of embodiment of the device being the subject of the invention, it can be said that the said device has a second hopper superimposed on the lower hopper, both hoppers being similar and being fitted to each other by screws through the flat sides of the lower hopper and threaded in lugs of flanges which extend from the lower part of the upper hopper. It should also be pointed out that the fitting of the lower hopper to the dish can be made by adhesive strips or belts.

The device of this second embodiment will reach a greater height and therefore has a higher capacity with the advantages derived therefrom.

The fitted upper hopper will preferably be of transparent plastic nature irrespective of the nature of the lower hopper which may be transparent or not and of plastic or metallic nature.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a front perspective view of the feeder of the invention, Figure 2 shows a rear perspective view of the feeder, Figure 3 shows a sectional view along a perpendicular central plane of the feeder shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and Figure 4 shows a view similar to that of Fig.

3 with an upper hopper fitted to the feeder.

In these Figs, it may be seen that the feeder of the invention is constituted by the coupling of two parts, one constituting a feeder dish 1 and the other constituting a hopper 2 both of a plastics material.

The dish 1 defines a container of little height and has two flat sides 3 slightly converging towards the bottom 4, which is provided with a large number of holes 5. The two flat sides 3 form an angle of 90" and a third, front side 6 has a profile which is outwardly convex, and its edge is fitted with a metal reinforcing section 7 having an arched inward projection 8, thus preventing the animals from gnawing the said edge.

The hopper 2, has a plan shape similar to that of the dish 1, having two flat sides 9 with an included angle of 90" and an arcuate front 10, which is curved in elevation and is fitted with a top rim or edge 11 as a reinforcement. The said front side 10 undergoes an inflexion in its curvature, at approximately half its height, below which it becomes curved concave and narrows to define the outlet 1 2 to the dish 1.

The hopper 2 may be coupled to the dish 1 using several procedures. As an example, in an area near the outlet 1 2 of the hopper 2, the latter has slots 1 3 on its flat sides 9 to allow its coupling on to the top edge of the corner defined by the two flat sides 3 of the dish 1. That is to say, the dish 1 will be placed inclined forwards, and the hopper 3 mounted above and secured by suitable conventional means. The assembly may be suspended by orifices 14 in the hopper 2 on the sides of one of the corners of a cage, the flat sides 3 and 9 of the feeder dish 1 and hopper 2 abutting on to the inside flat sides of the said cage.In this way sharp edges of the device are hidden so that the animals cannot gnaw anywhere and in addition the curved sides 6 and 10 are placed at the front, thus preventing dents caused by the animals and providing easy feeding.

In the variant of the embodiment showed in Fig. 4, it can be appreciated how the described feeder is complemented with an upper second hopper 2a which is similar to the hopper 2 and is fitted to the upper part thereof, for which the said second hopper 2a has lugs or flanges 1 6 in its lower part which are fitted to the flat sides 9 of the lower hopper 2 by screws 1 7 or the like. One or both hoppers 2, 2a may be of transparent plastics to enable the level of feed stored in the hoppers to be seen. The combined capacity of the hoppers 2, 2a is double that of the feeder dish 1 and hopper 2.

The lower hopper 2 can be fitted to the dish 1 by adhesive strips or belts 1 5 as can be seen in Fig. 4.

Claims (11)

1. A feeder device for animals, comprising a lower feeder dish and an uper first hopper part, said feeder dish and hopper part having similar plan shapes which are defined by two flat sides with an included angle and an arcuate third side, the hopper being deeper than said feeder dish and being convergent towards said included angle to provide an outlet over said feeder dish.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which part of the arcuate side of said hopper is convex towards its outer surface.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 in which convergency of said hopper is provided by an inflexion of the curvature of said arcuate side of the hopper at approximately half the height thereof so that a lower portion of said arcuate side is concave towards its outer surface.

4. A device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 in which said feeder dish and said hopper are joined so that their respective flat sides are substantially in the same planes.

5. A device as claimed in claim 4 in which the flat sides of said hopper are provided with slots for location on complementary parts of said feeder dish.

6. A device as claimed in any preceding claim in which the upper edge of the arcuate side of said feeder dish is provided with a metal reinforcing section which extends inwardly of the dish.

7. A device as claimed in any preceding claim in which the flat sides of said hopper are provided with means for securing the device to adjacent flat sides of a cage.

8. A device as claimed in any preceding claim in which said feeder dish has a floor which is inclined towards the arcuate side of the dish, said hopper outlet being spaced from said floor.

9. A device as claimed in any preceding claim in which said dish and said hopper are formed from a rigid plastics material.

10. A device as claimed in any preceding claim which includes a second hopper located above the first hopper and having a similar configuration, the combined capacity of said hoppers being approximately double the combined capacity of said feeder dish and said first hopper, and means for securing said second hopper to said first hopper.

11. A device as claimed in claim 10 in which said second hopper is of a transparent plastics material.

1 2. A feeding device for animals substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1 to 3 or Fig. 4 of the accompanying drawings.