Stalling cage for monitoring the consumption of liquids

Stalling cage comprising:

• a box suitable for containing one or more animals;
• a receptacle that contains a liquid to be administered to the animals in the box, and
• a monitoring device suitable for continuously monitoring the consumption of liquid from the receptacle;
• wherein the monitoring device comprises a level condenser with two electrodes disposed in contact with the receptacle in order to measure the capacitance variation caused by the variation of the level of liquid relative to the air in the receptacle;
• wherein the monitoring device comprises a half-shell with a base wall, a back wall and two lateral walls,
• characterized in that
• the electrodes are in co-planar configuration and are disposed outside the receptacle;
• said two electrodes of the level condenser are mounted on the half-shell;
• wherein said receptacle is removably inserted in said half-shell, the half-shell contains a flexible printed circuit board (PCB), said half-shell comprises a shelf that projects from the back wall of the half-shell and is disposed inside the half-shell in proximal parallel position relative to the base wall, in such a way to form a space between the base wall and the shelf,
• said PCB comprises a first side that faces the receptacle and a second side that faces the half-shell;
• said PCB comprises:
• a lower portion that is disposed in the space between the base wall and the shelf of the half-shell;
• a back portion that is disposed on the back part of the half-shell;
• and
• a side portion that is disposed on a lateral wall of the half-shell;
• said electrodes of the level condenser being disposed in a first side of the lateral portion of the PCB.