Pet feeder

Claim 1

A pet feeder including, in combination: (a) a cabinet having a top lid and a sloping partition dividing the interior of the cabinet into an upper bin and lower chamber, the lower central portion of said partition having an oblique opening, and the lower front wall of said cabinet having a food tray opening: (b) a vertical food metering cylinder having open upper and lower ends, the upper end being secured to the underside of said partition and cut at a bias to register with said oblique opening so that food placed in said bin by raising said lid fills said cylinder through its upper end opening, said cylinder having at least two vertically spaced circumferential slots intermediate its upper and lower ends each extending over at least 180°; (c) chopper means comprising a vertical shaft rotatably mounted in the interior portion of said chamber adjacent to said cylinder, and upper and lower circumferentially spaced paddles secured to said shaft at vertically spaced points such that the lower paddle covers said lower end opening of said cylinder and said upper paddle lies in the plane of one of said circmferential slots to one side of said cylinder, the circumferential spacing of said upper and lower paddles being such that when said shaft and paddles are rotated from a first to a second position, the lower paddle is swung out from under said cylinder and the upper paddle is swung into said one slot so that food filling said cylinder has a first measured amount chopped off by said upper paddle to fall through the lower end opening of said cylinder, said upper paddle preventing further food in said bin from falling through said cylinder, the securement point of said upper paddle to said shaft being releasable to enable vertical shifting thereof so that said upper paddle can be secured at a level to be received in the other of said two slots when moved from said first to said second position whereby a second different measured amount of food can be metered from said cylinder to fall through the lower end opening of said cylinder; (d) a food tray extending from the exterior of said cabinet partially within said food tray opening to underlie the lower end of said cylinder; (e) an electrically operable solenoid connected to move said shaft and paddles from said first to said second position when energized; (f) spring means for rotating said shaft and paddles together back to said first position from said second position when said solenoid is de-energized; and (g) timer means connected to said solenoid to energize said solenoid for a given period of time at desired set time intervals whereby a pet will have food available in said food tray for eating at said time intervals.