Health chew toy
AssigneeT.F.H. Publications, Inc.
InventorsGlen Axelrod, Ajay Gajria
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vitamin and/or mineral and/or herbal enriched molded animal chew toy. The vitamins, minerals and/or herbal additives are incorporated into the molded chew toy under conditions that minimize thermal degradation of such additives. Suitable resins include starch, casein, denatured and partially hydrolyzed casein, thermoplastic polymers and mixtures thereof. In related embodiment, animal chews comprising primarily denatured and partially hydrolyzed collagen are disclosed, as well as such denatured and partially hydrolyzed collagen in mixture with vegetable matter, rawhide, animal meal, peanut bits/flour, casein, starch and mixtures thereof.
Claims41
A vitamin, mineral and herbal enriched animal chew toy formed by:
- (a) combining resin, water and one or a plurality of vitamins, one or a plurality of minerals and one or a plurality of herbs to form a mixture;
- (b) introducing and heating said mixture to a heated molding machine containing a feed section, barrel and output section, including a plurality of heating zones extending from the hopper section to said output section wherein the heating zones are set at the following temperature ranges:
- zone 1 is at or below about 70° F.;
- zone 2 is at or below about 150° F., zone 3 is at or below about 300° F. and zone 4 is at or below about 375° F. and melt mixing and molding and cooling to form said chew toy wherein the water content of said chew toy is between 5% and 20% with respect to the resin so that a portion of said vitamins, minerals and herbs mixed therein are not thermally degraded by said molding.
A herbal enriched animal chew toy formed by:
- (a) combining resin, water and one or a plurality of herbs to form a mixture;
- (b) introducing and heating said mixture in a heated molding machine containing a feed section, barrel and output section, including a plurality of heating zones extending from the hopper section to said output section wherein the heating zones are set at the following temperature ranges:
- zone 1 is at or below about 70° F.;
- zone 2 is at or below about 150° C., zone 3 is at or below about 300° F. and zone 4 is at or below about 375° F. and melt mixing and molding and cooling to form said chew toy, wherein the water content of said chew toy is between 5% and 20% with respect to the resin so that a portion of said herbs are not thermally degraded by said molding.
A vitamin, mineral or herbal enriched animal chew toy formed by:
- (a) combining resin, water and one or a plurality of vitamins, or one or a plurality of minerals, or one of a plurality of herbs to form a mixture;
- (b) introducing and heating said mixture in a heated molding machine containing a feed section, barrel and output section, including a plurality of heating zones extending from the hopper section to said output section wherein the heating zones are set at the following temperature ranges:
- zone 1 is at or below about 70° F.;
- zone 2 is at or below about 150° F., zone 3 is at or below about 300° F. and zone 4 is at or below about 375° F. and melt mixing and molding and cooling to form said chew toy, wherein the water content of said chew toy is between 5-20% with respect to the resin so that a portion of said vitamins or minerals or herbs are not thermally degraded by said molding wherein said chew toy is in the form of a dog bone comprising a center portion and an end portion, and wherein said vitamins, minerals, or herbs are selectively concentrated at said end portion.
A co-injection molded vitamin, mineral or herbal enriched animal chew toy comprising an inner core and an outer molded surface, formed by:
- (a) combining a first resin, water and one or a plurality of vitamins, or one or a plurality of minerals, or one or a plurality of herbs to form a mixture for forming the outer molded surface;
- (b) supplying a second resin without vitamins/minerals and/or herbs for forming the inner core;
- (c) introducing and heating said mixture to a heated injection molding machine containing a feed section, barrel and output section, including a plurality of heating zones extending from said hopper section to said output section wherein the heating zones are set at the following temperature ranges:
- zone 1 is at or below about 70° F.;
- zone 2 is at or below about 150° F., zone 3 is at or below about 300° F. and zone 4 is at or below about 375° F. and melt mixing and injection molding and cooling to form said outer molded surface of said chew toy, wherein the water content of said chew toy is 5-20% by weight at said outer layer, and wherein said vitamins, minerals or herbs in said chew toy are therefore selectively concentrated at the outer molded surface of said chew toy and said inner core contains lower concentrations of water and said vitamins, minerals or herbs than are in the outer molded surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.