Animal litter box

• US 20040261727A1
• Filed: 12/18/2003
• Published: 12/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unicharm Corporation
• Original Assignee: Uni-Charm Petcare Corporation
• Inventors: Matsuo, Takayuki, Ikegami, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 6,994,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 119/170
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/0107 Cat trays; Dog urinals; Toilets for pets
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/0114 Litter boxes with screens for separating excrement from litter

Abstract

An animal litter box is to be provided that can be cleaned easily and can reduce the number of time to change an animal litter, particularly an animal litter box that allows liquid such as urine evacuated onto the granular materials to move to a liquid-absorbing sheet efficiently. An animal litter box includes a granular material container having an opening for an animal going in and out, and a liquid penetrating bottom part on which granular materials are dispersed; and a liquid-absorbing sheet holder placed under the bottom part of the granular material container on which a liquid-absorbing sheet is placed, wherein the bottom part of the granular material container has a liquid leading part formed by connected arches on a side facing the liquid-absorbing sheet.

Claims

1. An animal litter box comprising:

a granular material container having an opening for an animal going in and out, and a liquid passing bottom part on which granular materials are dispersed; and

a liquid-absorbing sheet holder placed under the bottom part of the granular material container on which a liquid-absorbing sheet is placed,

wherein the bottom part of the granular material container has a liquid leading part formed by connected arches on a side facing the liquid-absorbing sheet.

2. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the bottom part is grid ironed having a plurality of opening parts, and the opening part has dimensions smaller than those of the granular material.

3. The animal litter box according to claim 2, wherein an open area ratio of the opening of the bottom part occupied by the opening parts is 25 to 50% of an area of the bottom part.

4. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the bottom part is detachable from the granular material container.

5. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the liquid-absorbing sheet has an area greater than that of the bottom part of the granular material container.

6. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the liquid-absorbing sheet holder is loadably incorporated under the bottom part of the granular material container.

7. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the animal litter box has a drawer structure that can house a drawer body, and the liquid-absorbing sheet holder is the drawer body.

8. The animal litter box according to claim 7, wherein the animal litter box has a drawer structure that can house a drawer body, and the liquid-absorbing sheet holder is the drawer body.

9. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the animal litter box has a cover for controlling a direction of an animal going in and out mounted detachably.

10. The animal litter box according to claim 9, wherein a granular material dropper is detachably disposed at a position facing an opening of the cover in the animal litter box.

11. The animal litter box according to claim 10, wherein the granular material dropper includes a granular material removing member having a mesh top plate, and a granular material recovery container disposed under the granular material removing member.

12. The animal litter box according to claim 1,

wherein the granular materials has a liquid absorptive capacity wherein a maximum absorbable amount of liquid absorbed by each of the granular materials is 0.3 to 4.0 times as much as its own weight and an amount of liquid absorbed by each of the granular materials per three second is 20 to 70% of the maximum absorbable amount of liquid absorbed by each of the granular materials and has a liquid passing ratio of a mass of the granular materials is 70% or more.

13. The animal litter box according to claim 1, wherein the liquid-absorbing sheet has an antimicrobial and bacteriostatic part having both an antimicrobial property and a bacteriostatic property, or both of an antimicrobial part having an antimicrobial property and a bacteriostatic part having a bacteriostatic property.