SMALL ANIMAL CAGE

• US 3,698,360 A
• Filed: 11/10/1970
• Issued: 10/17/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Devices Development Corporation
• Original Assignee: Jeanette L. Rubricius
• Inventors: Rubricius, Jeanette L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chamblee, Hugh R.
• Application Number:
  US05/088,401
• Time in Patent Office: 707 Days
• Field of Search: 119/17,22,19
• US Class Current: 119/458
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/03 Housing for domestic or laboratory animals

Abstract

A small animal cage is formed as a single unit from plastic compositions of a nature enabling it to accommodate scratching and biting actions by a housed animal without deleterious effect and in a structural symmetrical fashion so that several cages can be stacked in an interlocked and interchangeable assembly. Each cage is formed with five solid walls and an open front which is closed off by hinged grill doors and each cage can be individually flushed and drained. The floor of each cage is pitched toward one rear corner wherein an opening communicates with a vertical drain pipe that is nested in a corner recess of the cages and empties into a drain conduit that extends along the rear of a structural foam block having a rearwardly slanting top wall supporting the floor of the lowermost cage with the top walls of the cages being sloped rearwardly causing the floors of the upper cages to slope the same as the bottom cage.

Claims

1. A small animal cage comprising a top wall, a bottom wall, opposing side walls and a rear wall and having an open front, a grill closure closing off the open front and including a hinged door affording access to the interior of the cage, said bottom wall constituting the floor for the cage and having an upper surface formed to drain toward one rear corner area thereof, said rear corner area of the floor having a vertical drain opening, and external drain means arranged along the exterior of the said rear corner of the one said side wall and the rear wall and extending vertically of the floor and arranged in sealed drain communication with the drain opening in the drain corner area of the floor, said corner being exteriorly indented to provide a nesting recess in which the drain means is positioned so that it does not protrude beyond the outer surfaces of the said one side wall and the rear wall whereby a plurality of such cages may be stacked in contiguous contact both side to side and back to back.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are molded as a unit from a structural foam with an integral outer skin of polyurethane and the front closure is formed from an elastomeric material.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein the front closure is formed of elastomeric material which can be chewed by the housed animal.

4. The invention of claim 1 wherein the front closure has a metal door.

5. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are molded as a unit from fiberglass.

6. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are molded as a unit from fiberglass and the door is formed from metal.

7. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are molded as a unit from fiberglass having a foam plastic core.

8. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are molded as a unit from a structural one-piece foam having a covering skin of semi-flexible material.

9. The invention of claim 8 wherein said skin is of polyurethane.

10. The invention of claim 1 wherein the top, bottom, side and rear walls are cast as a unit in vacuum from sheet plastic.

11. The invention of claim 1 wherein said bottom wall rests on a structural foam block having a rearwardly sloped upper supporting wall for the bottom wall that slopes rearwardly.

12. The invention of claim 11 wherein a horizontal drain conduit extends along the rear edge of the supporting block and to which the drain means is connected, said drain conduit underlying the rear edge of the bottom wall of the cage which juts out beyond the supporting block so as to overlie the drain conduit.

13. The invention of claim 1 wherein said upper surface of the floor is dished out laterally from side to side and is sloped diagonally toward the rear corner area so that it is pitched toward the drain corner area and the drain opening therein.

14. The invention of claim 1 wherein said drain means is a vertical drain pipe arranged vertically in the corner recess and having a vertical branch section offset inwardly and disposed in underlying sealed drainage communcation with the drain opening.

15. The invention of claim 14 wherein two or more cage units are arranged in vertically stacked assembly and the drain pipe is common to all of the cages and extends vertically therealong nested within the vertically aligned corner recesses of the cages and has a vertical branch section offset inwardly at the bottom of each cage and underlying the floor of each cage and disposed in sealed drainage communication with the drain opening in each floor.

16. The invention of claim 15 wherein the bottom wall of the bottom cage in such vertically stacked assembly rests on a block and has a rear edge jutting out rearwardly beyond the block and being substantially horizontally disposed and a horizontal drain conduit underlying the protruding rear edge and to which the vertical drain pipe is connected as part of the drain means for the stacked cage assembly.