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

• US 6,234,111 B1
• Filed: 04/29/1999
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• 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:
  US09/302,068
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 119/51.02, 119/52.1, 119/53, 119/53.5, 119/54
• US Class Current: 119/54
• 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 is directly attachable to the animal'"'"'s cage. 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 bottom surface is attached to the hopper. The conical bottom surface seats on a conical mount. The 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. The average weight of the hopper and the variance or standard deviation of the sensor output signal are calculated by an embedded processor, based on the output of the sensor. The beginning and end of a feeding are determined based on the standard deviation. The amount of the food consumed by the animal during the feeding is calculated. Each feeder has a respective gate. The animal can access food when the gate is open, but not when the gate is closed. A plurality of actuators automatically open and close each gate in response to control signals. A plurality of animals, each in an individual cage with a separate hopper, are simultaneously monitored and data are periodically accessed by a host computer.

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 being smaller than one of the pieces of food, but 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 hold the fallen gnawed food in a position accessible by the animal for eating; and

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

2. An animal feeder according to claim 1, wherein the hopper has at least one second opening above the first opening, the second opening being smaller than the first opening, the second opening being accessible by the animal for pawing or nuzzling the food so that food falls through the opening of the hopper.

3. A feeder according to claim 1, wherein the first opening is a slot having a width that is less than a largest dimension of a smallest area projection of one of the pieces of food.

4. 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.

5. A feeder according to claim 4, wherein the hopper has a front opening, which receives a projecting body, to limit upward motion of the feeder.

6. A feeder according to claim 4, further comprising a bottom plate attached to the hopper, the bottom plate adapted to engage a stop, so as to limit upward motion of the feeder.

7. A feeder according to claim 4, further comprising means for limiting vertical and horizontal motion and rotation of the hopper.

8. A feeder according to claim 4, wherein the self-centering mount transmits a downward force from the bottom surface to a load cell.

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

10. A feeder according to claim 1, wherein the mounting bracket has a lip which partially covers the receiving surface of the hopper, the lip being shaped so as to provide a surface on which the animal can rest or lean, to reduce leaning by the animal on the hopper.

11. A feeder according to claim 1, wherein:

the hopper has at least one second opening above the first opening, the second opening being smaller than the first opening, the second opening being accessible by the animal for nuzzling or pawing food;

the hopper has an approximately conical bottom surface;

the mounting bracket includes an approximately conical mount, on which the approximately conical bottom surface is removably seated;

the approximately conical mount transmits a downward force from the approximately conical bottom surface to a load cell;

the mounting bracket has a lip which partially covers the receiving surface of the hopper, the lip being shaped so as to provide a surface on which the animal can rest or lean;

the mounting bracket includes a stop;

the hopper has a front opening which receives the lip of the mounting bracket, and a bottom plate adapted to engage the stop of the mounting bracket, so as to limit upward motion of the feeder; and

the mounting bracket has front and rear vertical surfaces for limiting horizontal motion and rotation of the feeder.

12. An animal feeder according to claim 1, wherein:

the mounting bracket is mountable to a standard laboratory animal cage;

the hopper and mounting bracket substantially reduce an amount of food that can spill from the hopper;

the hopper has a shape which prevents contamination by animal urine or feces; and

the shape of the hopper allows the animal to perform normal animal feeding behavior.

13. 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 self-centering mount, on which the bottom mounting surface is removably seated, wherein the self-centering 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.

14. A feeder according to claim 13, wherein the self-centering mount transmits a downward force from the bottom mounting surface to a load cell.

15. A feeder according to claim 14, 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.

16. A feeder according to claim 14, further comprising a mounting bracket which includes the self-centering mount on which the hopper is removably seated, the mounting bracket being directly attachable to a container in which the animal is housed.

17. An animal feeder according to claim 13, further comprising means for allowing the animal to eat the pieces of food which have passed through the first opening of the hopper, while preventing the animal from removing a whole piece of food from the feeder.

18. A feeder according to claim 13, 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.

19. A feeder according to claim 13, further comprising a bottom plate attached to the hopper, the bottom plate adapted to engage a stop, so as to limit upward motion of the feeder.

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

21. An animal feeder according to claim 20, 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.

22. An animal feeder according to claim 20, wherein the self-centering mount allows freedom of movement and freedom of rotation by the hopper within a set of predetermined limits.

23. A feeder according to claim 22, further comprising a mounting bracket which includes the self-centering mount on which the hopper is removably seated, the mounting bracket being directly attachable to a container in which the animal is housed.

24. A feeder according to claim 20, further comprising a bottom plate attached to the hopper, the bottom plate adapted to engage a stop, so as to limit upward motion of the feeder.

25. A system comprising:

a hopper for storing food for consumption by an animal;

a sensor which measures a force applied to the hopper and provides an output signal;

a processor for calculating an average weight of the hopper based on the output signal of the sensor and a statistical measure of the output signal other than the average weight;

said processor identifying a beginning and an end of a feeding based on the statistical measure; and

said processor calculating an amount of the food consumed by the animal during the feeding based on the average weight before the beginning of the feeding and the average weight after the end of the feeding.

26. A system according to claim 25, wherein the statistical measure is one of the group consisting of a variance, a standard deviation, a first derivative of the output signal with respect to time and a second derivative of the output signal with respect to time.

27. A system according to claim 25, wherein the calculated average weight is based only on measurements of the weight of the hopper for which the statistical measure is less than a first threshold.

28. A system according to claim 27, wherein the identifying means determines the beginning and the end of the feeding based on times at which the statistical measure crosses a second threshold, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.

29. A system according to claim 28, wherein a period including four consecutive crossings of the second threshold are identified as belonging to a single feeding, if a length of time between the second and third ones of the four consecutive crossings is less than a predetermined minimum length of time.

30. A system according to claim 25, wherein the statistical measure is one of the group consisting of a variance, a standard deviation, a first derivative of the output signal with respect to time and a second derivative of the output signal with respect to time.

31. A system according to claim 25, wherein:

the processor is automatic for providing unattended monitoring; and

the processor is capable of running on battery power.

32. A system according to claim 25, wherein:

the processor receives an input value representing a monitoring frequency, and reads the output signal of the sensor in accordance with the input value.

33. A system according to claim 25, wherein the hopper engages a mounting bracket, and the mounting bracket is connected to a cage in which the animal is housed, and the sensor is sufficiently sensitive to detect when the animal is moving within the cage.

34. A system according to claim 25, further comprising a storage device for storing the measured data from the sensor, and for storing data calculated therefrom, the storage device being accessible at a location proximate to the cage of the animal.

35. 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 automatically opening and closing each gate in response to control signals;

the processor having means for receiving a signal indicating that either a first operating mode, a second operating mode, or a third operating mode is selected;

the processor generating and transmitting the control signals to each of the plurality of actuators so as to provide access to each animal for a common length of time if the first operating mode is selected;

the processor generating and transmitting the control signals to each of the plurality of actuators so as to provide food access to each animal until a common amount of food is removed from each feeder, if the second operating mode is selected;

the processor generating and transmitting the control signals to each of the plurality of actuators so as to provide food access to each animal until either a common length of time passes or a common amount of food is removed from each feeder, whichever occurs first, if the third operating mode is selected.

36. A system according to claim 35, wherein the common length of time is a predetermined fixed length of time, and the common amount of food is a predetermined fixed amount of food.

37. A system according to claim 36, wherein the processor generates and transmits control signals to a first one of the actuators to provide a first animal access to the food, either:

(a) until a length of time passes, which is equal to a duration of a feeding by a specific second animal;

or

(b) until the first animal removes as much food from the feeder as is removed by the second animal;

or

(c) until the earlier of (a) or (b) occurs.

38. A system according to claim 36, further comprising:

the processor generates and transmits the control signals to control food access based on any of the group consisting of;

time of day, meal length, meal size, cumulative food intake from a previous point in time, light, animal activity, noise, temperature, consumption parameters, or other user defined variables,

wherein the processor is capable of controlling the actuating means individually for each cage, or controlling all of the feeders centrally.

39. A system according to claim 36, wherein:

at least two of the animal feeders are located remotely from one another, and each animal feeder has a respective processor capable of determining the amount of food removed from the corresponding feeder and generating and transmitting the first, second and control signals to control access to the corresponding feeder, and

the processors are connected to one another via a communications network.