Flow rate meter and automatic animal feeder installation employing such flow meter

An apparatus for automatically feeding animals liquid food, comprising at least one nipple, a supply conduit for supplying liquid food under pressure towards the nipple, said supply conduit having a valve controlled by a pressure sensor therein so that when, due to sucking action of an animal exerted on the nipple, a pressure variation in the said supply conduit is sensed by the pressure sensor, the valve is opened;

• and a flow rate meter for establishing the amount of food consumed, located between the valve and the nipple said flow rate meter having at least one flow passage;
• each flow passage being at least locally in the form of at least one circular channel within which a ball is constrained in said at least one circular channel to be driven by a fluid in proportion to the flow velocity of the fluid, said ball thereby passing a sensor that signals the ball revolutions, and each flow passage being formed with a fluid inlet conduit opening substantially tangentially into said at least one circular channel and an outlet conduit extending from said at least one circular channel upstream of, and adjacent to the inlet opening and forming an angle with the said at least one circular channel, further there being more than one circular channel, each channel having its own ball, its own sensor, its own inlet conduit and its own outlet conduit;
• the outlet conduits of the circular channels merging into a single, common outlet channel.