Patent Application
20100083904
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toy device for keeping pets active and entertained.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many pet toys can keep pets active and entertained and stimulate their intelligence. Food or treats can be placed in pet toys to attract pets in order to keep pets' (e.g. dogs') interest longer. An ideal design is to not allow pets to consume the treats easily and to spend more time on pet toys. Therefore, many efforts have centered on developing pet toys which can achieve this object.
U.S. patent publication No. 20080141948, entitled “Pet toy with palatability enhancer”, features a pet toy with a material attractive to pets. Additionally, the pet toy has holes and a chamber such that treats can be placed into the chamber via the holes. However, there is no mention of how pets eat the treats or the type of treats.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,895, entitled “Treat dispensing chewing toy”, discloses a curved tube with many small holes. Dogs have to shake the tube so that treats will fall out through small holes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,366, entitled “Animal toy”, discloses a container for food with a small hole in its top and also a small hole in its bottom. Dogs have to shake the container so that treats will fall out through these small holes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,571, entitled “Animal treat dispensing toy”, discloses a sphere having many small holes on its surface. Dogs have to shake the sphere so that treats will fall out through small holes.
In addition, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,484,671, 6,557,496, 5,819,690, 6,427,634, 7,270,085, 6,237,538, 5,865,147, and 6,470,830 also disclose containers for food with small holes on the surfaces thereof, and dogs have to shake the container so that treats will fall out through the small holes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,258, entitled “Treat dispensing pet toy and training device”, discloses a container with an opening through which a rope is inserted so that food in the container will sometimes fall out when a dog is biting the rope.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,877, entitled “Pet toy product with integral treat receiving receptacles”, discloses a flat flexible container with a slot. Dry food can be placed in the container and fall out through the slot when the container is compressed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,182 is based on a similar idea.
Pet toys in the aforementioned prior arts are basically suitable for containing dry food (e.g. biscuits). Dogs have to bite the toy and shake it or change the shape of the holes to remove the dry food.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,061, entitled “Pet toy product with integral treats receiving receptacles”, discloses a pet toy with a plurality of recesses on the surface thereof. Either dry food (e.g. biscuits) or moist food (e.g. peanut butter) can be placed in the recesses. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,129,053, 7,032,541, 7,234,420, and 6,546,896 also disclose similar ideas. These inventions do not provide a container in which food can be placed. They are basically conventional artificial dog bones modified by adding grooves on the surface for placing food to change the flavor of the artificial dog bones. The patents mentioned in this paragraph are designed for placing both dry food and pasty food (e.g. peanut butter). However, the recesses or grooves are disposed on the surface such that pasty foods may easily dirty floors or carpets.
With regard to the aforementioned pet toys, the sizes of their holes or recesses are basically small, and dogs basically have to bite the toys. Thus, these toys have to be replaced often and get dirty easily, and most of them are not easy to clean.
Additionally, the pet toys mentioned above basically do not allow pet owners to adjust the operation of the pet toys, such as adjusting the degree of difficulty in reaching and eating the food.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device allowing pets to lick pet food, especially pasty food, such as peanut butter.
It is another object of the present invention to decrease the possibility that pets will bite the pet toy.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a pet toy which is easy to clean.
In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a pet treat dispensing toy mainly comprising a main shell and a bottom shell. The main shell comprises at least one upper opening and at least one bottom opening; the bottom shell is connected around the position of the bottom opening.
The bottom shell comprises a food serving area. When the bottom shell is connected with the position of the bottom opening of the main shell, the upper opening can communicate with the food serving area such that a pet's nose can pass through the upper opening, allowing the pet to lick the pet food put on the food serving area.
In the embodiments, the bottom shell can be removable from the main shell to be cleaned easily. Moreover, the position of the bottom shell can be adjusted to be suitable for different dogs or to increase the degree of difficulty in licking the food.
FIGS. 7□8 are partial cross-section perspective views of a pet treat dispensing toy in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
pet treat dispensing toy 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f
main shell 10
upper opening 11
bottom opening 12
hollow tubular member 13
main shell thread 15
marking area 151
a plurality of female locking members 16
bottom shell 30
food serving area 31
recessed area 311
rim 32
elastic contacting member 321
bottom shell thread 35
handle 36, 36a
elastic member 37
operating member 40
male locking member 41
pressing member 42
fixing member 43
pet 90
pet food 92
pasty food 921
The advantages and innovative features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Please refer to
The present invention provides a pet treat dispensing toy 1a mainly comprising a main shell 10 and a bottom shell 30.
The main shell 10 is substantially a hollow tubular member 13 comprising at least one upper opening 11 and at least one bottom opening 12, and the main shell 10 has a main shell thread 15 on its outer surface around the position of the bottom opening 12.
The bottom shell 30 is connected around the position of the bottom opening 12 and is substantially cup-shaped. In addition, the bottom shell 30 has a bottom shell thread 35 on its inner surface. The bottom shell thread 35 cooperates with the main shell thread 15 such that the bottom shell 30 can be attached to or detached from the main shell 10. When a user wants to clean the pet toy 1a, he or she can detach the bottom shell 30 from the main shell 10 for the convenience of cleaning.
The pet food 92 of the present invention is preferably a pasty food 921 (e.g. jam, peanut butter, etc.). The pasty food 921 is placed in the food serving area 31 of the bottom shell 30. The food serving area 31 needs to communicate with the upper opening 11 such that the pet 90's nose can pass through the upper opening 11 to allow the pet to lick the pet food 92.
The pet toy 1a of the present invention is especially suitable for a pet such as the dog 90. In order to fit most dogs' noses, the upper opening 11 of the main shell 10 is preferably larger than the bottom opening 12, and the upper opening 11 and the bottom opening 12 are circular.
Also, in order to allow the dog 90 to lick the pet food 92 for a longer time, a pet owner can adjust and set a proper distance between the upper opening 11 and the food serving area 31 by rotating the bottom shell 30. (For example, the dog can just reach the food serving area 31 with the tip of his/her tongue.) In addition, the food serving area 31 can have a recessed area 311 to increase the distance from the dog 90's tongue to the recessed area 311 when the dog 90 is licking the recessed area 311. The advantage of disposing the bottom shell 30 outside the main shell 10 is that the user can rotate the bottom shell 30 easily. However, it should be noted that the interconnection between the bottom shell thread 35 and the main shell thread 15 should not be too loose in order to prevent the dog 90 from loosening the bottom shell 30 easily or incautiously with its paw.
Please refer to
Please refer to
Please refer to
Please refer to
The pet owner can hold the handle 36a with his/her fingers directly and thus connect the rim 32 of the bottom shell 30 with the inner surface of the main shell 10 by friction around the position of the bottom opening 12. Also, the pet owner can hold the handle 36a and adjust and obtain the proper distance between the upper opening 11 and the food serving area 31. The friction between the bottom shell 30 and the main shell 10 should be moderate so that when the dog's tongue is touching the food serving area 31, the bottom shell 30 will move downward until the dog has no more strength to push it with the tip of his/her tongue.
The advantage of the pet toy 1e is that the proper distance between the upper opening 11 and the food serving area 31 does not need to be set by the pet owner. The food serving area 31 can be moved to a proper position when the dog is licking the food. Similarly, the food serving area 31 of the pet toy 1e can also have the recessed area 311.
Please refer to
The operating member 40 comprises a plurality of pressing members 42 and a plurality of male locking members 41 connecting with the pressing members 42. The user can operate the plurality of pressing member 42 to allow the plurality of male locking members 41 to lengthen and shorten so that the bottom shell 30 can be connected with or detached from the plurality of female locking members 16 of the main shell 10 by the plurality of male locking members 41. This can also adjust the distance between the upper opening 11 and the food serving area 31. The cooperation between the female locking members 16 and the male locking members 41 is well-known in the prior art and is thus not described here.
It is noted that the above-mentioned embodiments are only for illustration. It is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 097138236 | Oct 2008 | TW | national |
