Animal feeder, feeder mount, feeder monitor, and feeder monitoring network

• US 6,748,898 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2002
• Issued: 06/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Biodaq, LLC, Research Diets, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Research Diets, Inc.
• Inventors: Ulman, Edward A., Shapiro, Daniel E., Sarica, Dominic, Jackson, Frederick E., Hopewell, Barrie, Price, Nathan B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jordan, Charles T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAW, ELIZABETH ANNE
• Application Number:
  US10/212,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20030033115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 680 Days
• Field of Search: 119/51.02, 119/52.1, 119/53, 119/53.5, 119/54, 119/57.92
• US Class Current: 119/57.92
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/031 Cages for laboratory animals; Cages for measuring metabolism of animals
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/0356 Feeding or drinking devices associated with cages for poultry A01K31/005, A01K31/17, A01K39/00; for birds A01K31/06
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/00 Other apparatus for animal husbandry

Abstract

An animal feeder has a hopper for storing pieces of food. The bottom of the hopper has an opening accessible by an animal. The opening is smaller than a piece of food, but large enough for the animal to gnaw the food through the opening. The hopper has a surface adjacent the opening, to receive fallen gnawed food and hold the fallen gnawed food in a position accessible by the animal for eating. The hopper engages a mounting bracket. The bracket has a lip which partially covers the receiving surface of the hopper to physically limit the animal from leaning on the hopper and to prevent the hopper from tipping back so far that it falls off the conical mount. A conical mount transmits a downward force from the conical bottom surface to a sensor, but does not transmit an upward force or moment to the sensor.

Claims

1. An animal feeder, comprising:

a hopper for storing pieces of food, a bottom portion of the hopper having a first opening which is accessible by an animal, the first opening large enough for the animal to gnaw the food through the first opening, the hopper having a receiving surface adjacent to the first opening, the receiving surface positioned to receive fallen gnawed food; and

a mounting bracket on which the hopper is seated, the mounting bracket being attachable to a container in which the animal is housed.

2. A feeder according to claim 1, wherein the hopper has a bottom mounting surface, and the mounting bracket includes a self-centering mount, on which the bottom surface is removably seated.

3. A feeder according to claim 2, wherein the self-centering mount transmits a downward force from the bottom surface to a load cell.

4. A feeder according to claim 2, wherein the self-centering mount is an approximately conical mount.

5. An animal feeder, comprising:

a hopper for storing pieces of food, the hopper having a first opening, through which the pieces of food pass for consumption by the animal;

a bottom mounting surface attached to the hopper; and

a mount, on which the bottom mounting surface is removably seated, wherein the mount allows freedom of movement and freedom of rotation by the hopper within a set of predetermined limits, and the bottom mounting surface returns to a centered position after a movement or rotation, by operation of gravity.

6. A feeder according to claim 5, wherein the mount is self-centering and transmits a downward force from the bottom mounting surface to a load cell.

7. A feeder according to claim 6, wherein the self-centering mount does not transmit an upward force from the bottom mounting surface to the load cell, thereby avoiding stress reversal effects.

8. A feeder according to claim 5, further comprising one or more surfaces forming a hollow, the hollow coupled to receive the pieces of food from the first opening of the hopper, the hollow having a front opening which is accessible by the animal, wherein the front opening of the hollow receives a projecting body, to limit motion of the feeder in an upward direction.

9. An animal feeder, comprising:

a hopper for storing pieces of food, the hopper having a first opening, through which the pieces of food pass for consumption by the animal;

a mount, on which the hopper is removably seated, the mount transmitting a downward force from the hopper to a measuring device, wherein the mount does not transmit an upward force or moment from the hopper to the measuring device.

10. An animal feeder according to claim 9, wherein the measuring device is load cell having a sensor for measuring a change in weight or mass, the sensor being from the group consisting of a force balance sensor, a silicon strain gage sensor, a capacitance sensor, a quartz sensor, a pressure sensor, a pressure transducer, a bonded strain gage load cell and the like.

11. An animal feeder according to claim 9, wherein the mount is self-centering and allows freedom of movement and freedom of rotation by the hopper within a set of predetermined limits.

12. A system for controlling feeding of a plurality of animals, comprising:

a plurality of animal feeders, each feeder having a respective gate, the gate having an open position and a closed position, such that a respective animal can access food from a respective feeder when the gate of that feeder is open, and the respective animal cannot access food from a respective feeder when the gate of that feeder is closed;

a processor for determining an amount of food removed from each respective feeder by the respective animal that has access to that feeder;

a plurality of actuators for opening and closing each gate in response to control signals;

the processor having means for receiving a signal indicating that one of a plurality of operating modes is selected, wherein the processor controls the plurality of actuators based on the signal to control

     1) a common amount of food provided to each animal or

     2) a common length of time each animal has access to food, or

     3) a common amount of food provided to each animal and a common length of time each animal has access to food.

13. An animal monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of cage controllers, each cage controller having a respective processor and a storage device coupled to the processor, each cage controller receiving and storing sensor data from a sensor that collects sensor data from a respective animal specimen, each cage controller calculating statistics from the sensor data; and

a local host computer to which each of the plurality of cage controllers is coupled, the local host computer being capable of issuing commands to each of the cage controllers.

14. The animal monitoring system of claim 13, wherein each cage controller stores in the respective storage device thereof computer program code that causes the processor thereof to calculate statistics that include a variance or standard deviation or a first or second derivative from the sensor data, and causes the processor to identify animal activity based on the calculated statistics.

15. The animal monitoring system of claim 14, wherein the identified activity is feeding.

16. The animal monitoring system of claim 13, wherein the system further comprises a remote host computer that is located remotely from the local host computer, the remote host computer transmitting messages to the local host computer via a communications network, the remote host computer commanding the plurality of cage controllers via the messages.

17. The animal monitoring system of claim 16, further comprising a group of cage controllers coupled to remote host computer, wherein the local host computer transmits sensor data from the plurality of cage controllers to the remote host computer, and the remote host computer includes means for combining sensor data from the plurality of cage controllers and the group of cage controllers.

18. The animal monitoring system of claim 16, wherein the local and remote host computers exchange messages with each other via a global communications network.

19. An animal feeder, comprising:

a hopper for storing pieces of food, a portion of the hopper having a first opening, the first opening large enough for an animal to gnaw the food through the first opening, the hopper having a receiving surface adjacent to the first opening, the receiving surface positioned to receive fallen gnawed food; and

a mounting bracket on which the hopper is seated, the mounting bracket being attachable to a container in which the animal is housed.

20. An animal feeder, comprising:

a hopper for storing food, the hopper having a first opening, through which pieces of the food pass;

a mounting surface attached to the hopper; and

a mount, on which the mounting surface is removably seated, wherein the mount allows freedom of movement within a set of predetermined limits, and the mounting surface returns to a centered position after a movement, by operation of gravity.

21. A system for controlling feeding, comprising:

a plurality of animal feeders, each feeder having a respective access means, the access means having an open position and a closed position, such that food from a respective feeder can be accessed when the access means of that feeder is open, and the food cannot be accessed from a respective feeder when the access means of that feeder is closed;

a processor for determining an amount of food removed from each respective feeder;

a plurality of actuators for opening and closing each access means in response to control signals;

the processor having means for receiving a signal indicating that one of a plurality of operating modes is selected, wherein the processor controls the plurality of actuators based on the signal to control

     1) an amount of food provided to each animal or

     2) a length of time each access means is open, or

     3) an amount of food provided and a length of time each access means is open.