Animal feeding teats and a teat mounting system
OwnerRoss Gordon MCINNESinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Animal feeding teats are often removed from a feeding receptacle for cleaning or for re-use on a larger receptacle. A nipple end of the teats is typically designed for use in a specific orientation to aid the suckling of a young animal, and therefore the teats need to be fitted to the feeding receptacle correctly. The animal feeding teat has a rectangular connection feature in a base end of the teat that is designed to mate with a similarly shaped feature on a feeding receptacle. It is considered important that the connection feature has only one or two lines of symmetry, so that the teat can only be fitted in one or two orientations relative to the receptacle.
Claims21
1-19. (canceled)
An animal feeding apparatus having a milk receptacle that is adapted to supply milk to one or more teats when in use, the milk receptacle having one or more connection features in the form of spigots capable of providing a supply of milk from the milk receptacle to an animal feeding teat, wherein a shape of the or each spigot has two or fewer lines of symmetry when the shape is considered in a plane perpendicular to an intended direction of the supply of milk from the milk receptacle into an animal feeding teat.
An animal feeding teat, the teat having a nipple end and a base end, the nipple end having one or more openings configured to discharge milk in a desired manner into the mouth of an animal, and the base end being configured to engage with a milk receptacle adapted to supply milk to the teat, and the base end includes a connection feature that is configured to engage with a complementary feature on a milk receptacle, wherein the shape of the connection feature, when considered in a base end plane, has two or fewer lines of symmetry, the base end plane being perpendicular to the intended direction of the supply of milk from a milk receptacle into the base end of the teat.
An animal feeding teat and teat adapter assembly, the animal feeding teat and teat adapter assembly comprising an animal feeding teat and a teat adapter;
- the animal feeding teat having a nipple end and a base end, the nipple end having one or more openings configured to discharge milk into the mouth of an animal;
- the teat adapter having a teat receiving portion and a connector portion and being configured to receive milk from a milk receptacle and to provide a flow path for the milk to the teat;
- the base end of the animal feeding teat being configured to engage with the teat receiving portion of the adapter;
- and the connector portion of the adapter includes a connection feature that is configured to engage with a complementary feature on a milk receptacle, wherein a shape of the connection feature has two or fewer lines of symmetry when the shape is considered in a plane perpendicular to an intended direction of the supply of milk from a milk receptacle into the animal feeding teat.
An adapter for an animal feeding teat, the adapter having a connector portion and a teat receiving portion and the adapter is configured to allow milk to flow from the connector portion to the teat receiving portion when in use;
- the connector portion being configured to engage with a milk receptacle adapted to supply milk to one or more animal feeding teats, and the connector portion includes a connection feature that is configured to engage with a complementary feature on a milk receptacle;
- and the shape of the connection feature has two or fewer lines of symmetry when the shape is considered in a plane perpendicular to an intended direction of a flow of milk from the connector portion to the teat receiving portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.