Abstract:
A hand feeding system for small animals, such as kittens, uses a syringe that has a nursing nipple removably attached to the hub end of the syringe. Either a scratch pad is interposed directly between a shoulder of the syringe and the nipple or a plate is so interposed such that the plate is removably attached to a freestanding stand that has a scratch pad located thereon.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a syringe based feeder that has a nipple thereon for feeding small animals such as kittens. The feeder also has a guard for helping prevent the animal&#39;s paws from interfering with the feeding process. 
     2. Background of the Prior Art 
     Baby animals, such as kittens, are dependent on their mother for just about everything, including nutrition, for survival. Unfortunately, sometimes the baby animal is separated from its mother due to death or incapacitation of the mother, forced separation by man, etc. If the baby animal is separated from its mother, either man intervenes and provides for the baby or the baby, too young and immature to fend for itself, dies. 
     As mentioned, one of the critical functions that man must perform is to feed the baby animal so that it has sufficient nutrition to sustain itself. Normally, the baby animal latches on to a teat of the mother and drinks the milk produced by the mother. Such mother&#39;s milk, also consumed by many other animals including man, generally provides all the nutrients needed by the baby animal in the critical first days and weeks of the baby&#39;s life. Of course, man lacks such teats or the ability to produce mother&#39;s milk for an animal, therefore, other accommodations must be made. Modern science has produced formulas that closely match and often exceed the nutritional qualities of the mother&#39;s milk for a baby kitten or other animal. However, even if a specialized formula is not available, simple milk and cream make a great substitute for the non-available mother&#39;s milk. 
     With a nutritional substitute in hand, the next problem becomes actually feeding the animal with the milk or formula. Baby animals often lack the skills and abilities to feed themselves from a bowl or other food source, such skills and abilities being learned over time. To address this, many baby animal caregivers simply use a syringe for the feeding process. An amount of feeding liquid is drawn into the barrel of the syringe through the tip of the hub with the tip being inserted into the kitten&#39;s mouth and the plunger being slowly depressed in order to deliver the liquid into the kitten&#39;s mouth. While technically sound, this method of liquid delivery is not particularly efficient due to the fact that the tip of the hub is a rather unnatural element for the kitten and the baby animal is reluctant to have the tip placed into its mouth. As a result, the caregiver must force the tip into the kitten&#39;s mouth, oftentimes with great struggle with the animal. Not only can such a struggle lead to a mess with formula or milk all over the place, but the relatively delicate animal can suffer an injury. 
     To address this issue, nursing nipples have been used which nipples cover the tip of the syringe and allow the kitten to draw the liquid from the syringe through the nipple. As the nipple is more natural to the animal, both aesthetically and texturally, the animal is less resistant to its use and is more likely to latch onto the nipple and “nurse” therefrom. The use of a nipple overlying the cold and clinical hub tip of the syringe vastly improves the efficiency of the baby animal feeding process, however, certain shortcoming still remain. The baby animal, being playful by instinct, uses its front paws to engage the hands of the caregiver during the feeding process. This engagement of the hands of the caregiver by the kitten interferes with the feeding process by making it difficult for the caregiver to maintain the nipple within the animal&#39;s mouth. Not only can a mess result, but the animal, although having fun with the caregiver, does not ingest the required amount of sustenance during the feeding cycle. To address this problem, a second caregiver engages the paws of the kitten so that the first caregiver can concentrate on maintaining the nipple within the mouth of the animal. While effective, this method is inefficient in that a second person is needed for each feeding cycle, which can be expensive in a commercial setting such as a veterinarian&#39;s office, and possibly difficult to obtain in a private home setting when a person is alone with the kitten. 
     What is needed is a system whereby a baby animal such as a kitten can be easily and effectively fed via a nipple tipped syringe wherein the playfulness of the animal does not adversely interfere with the feeding process. Specifically, such a system must allow a single person to be able to feed the baby animal and keep the animal&#39;s paws engaged on an area other than the caregiver&#39;s hands. Ideally, such a system is of relatively simple design and construction so as to be relatively inexpensive to manufacture and obtain. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The syringe feeder with nipple and guard of the present invention addresses the aforementioned needs in the art by providing a syringe based feeding device for baby animals such as kittens with a feeding nipple overlying the tip of the syringe hub. The syringe feeder with nipple and guard also provides a subsystem that can be engaged by the kitten&#39;s paws allowing the kitten to be naturally playful during feeding, which playfulness does not adversely interfere with the feeder&#39;s hands so as not to adversely affect the feeding process. The syringe feeder with nipple and guard is of relatively simple design and construction, being made using standard manufacturing techniques, so as to be readily affordable to a large percentage of potential consumers for such a product. The syringe feeder with nipple and guard is relatively easy to use, maintain, and clean. 
     The syringe feeder with nipple and guard of the present invention is comprised of a syringe that has a barrel and a plunger slidably disposed within the barrel. The barrel has a shoulder on an end thereof and a hub extending outwardly from the shoulder, the hub having a tip with a first opening. A scratch pad has a second opening such that the scratch pad is removably attached to the syringe by passing the tip and the hub through the second opening with the scratch pad abutting against the shoulder of the barrel. A nipple structure has a nipple thereon and is removably attached to the hub of the syringe so that the scratch pad is sandwiched between the nipple structure and the shoulder. The scratch pad may have a rigid backing member. The nipple structure has a cap attached to the nipple such that the cap is either frictionally or threadably attached to the hub. Alternately, a stand is provided that has a forward leg with a front surface and a slot that has a cutaway section. The stand is capable of being freestanding. A scratch pad is removably attached to the front surface of the forward leg. A plate has a second opening such that the plate is removably attached to the syringe by passing the tip and the hub through the second opening such that the plate abuts the shoulder of the barrel. The nipple structure sandwiches the plate between itself and the shoulder of the syringe. The scratch pad is removably attached to the front surface of the forward leg by having a first portion of hook and loop material disposed on the front surface and having a second portion of hook and loop material disposed on scratch pad such that the first portion of hook and loop material and the second portion of hook and loop material cooperatively mate with one another. The stand may also have a support leg for providing the freestanding capability of the stand. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view, partially exploded, of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of an alternate configuration of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view, partially exploded, of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard of  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
    
     Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring now to the drawings, it is seen that the syringe feeder with nipple and guard of the present invention, generally denoted by reference numeral  10 , is comprised of a typical syringe  12  having a barrel  14  with a plunger  16  slidably disposed within the barrel  14  and a handle  18  attached to the plunger  16  for controlling movement of the plunger  16  within the barrel  14 . A hub  20  has a tip  22  with an opening  24 , the hub  20  extending from a shoulder  26  of the barrel  14 . The syringe  12  works in the usual way in that the plunger  16  is slid to the hub  20  end of the barrel  14  via the handle  18 . The opening  24  of the tip  22  is placed within a desired liquid and the plunger  16  is slid away from the hub  20  via pulling of the handle  18 . This rearward sliding of the plunger  16  creates a vacuum within the barrel  14  so that the liquid is drawn into the barrel  14  via the opening  24  of the tip  22  as a result of the vacuum so created. Once the barrel  14  is filled with a desired amount of the liquid, the liquid is extracted from the barrel  14  by pressing on the handle  18  so as to push the plunger  16  toward the hub  20  end of the barrel  14  thereby forcing the liquid back out of the opening  24  of the tip. 
     As seen, a guard  28  has a central opening  30 , a relatively rigid backing  32  (although not required), and a relatively soft scratch pad  34 . The scratch pad  34  may be of any appropriate scratch pad material such asm by way of example, foam or similar soft material covered in an appropriate cover such as cloth, leather, Nylon, etc., or other appropriate covering material, the overall guard  28  acting as a scratching pad for a kitten or other baby animal. If a backing  32  is used, the covering material may be removable therefrom for ease of cleaning of the scratch pad  34 . The guard  28  is fitted on the syringe  12  by passing the hub  20  through the opening  30  on the guard  28 . The back of the guard  28  buts up against and seats on the shoulder  26  of the syringe  12 . The guard  28  is maintained on the syringe  12  by attaching a nipple structure  36 , having a nursing nipple  38  and a cap  40 , onto the hub  20  of the syringe  12  so as to sandwich the guard  28  onto the syringe  12 . The cap  40  has a diameter that is greater than the diameter of the opening  30  of the guard  28  so as to prevent the guard  28  from slipping off of the syringe  12 . The nipple structure  36  is maintained on the hub  20  of the syringe in any appropriate fashion, including having the cap  40  of the nipple structure  36  be threadably attached to the hub  20  (threading on hub  20  not illustrated) or by having the cap  40  frictionally fit onto the hub  20 , etc. The size of the syringe  12  and the attached nipple  38  of the nipple structure  36  is selected based on the size of the animal being fed using the device  10 . 
     In order to use the syringe feeder with nipple and guard  10  of the present invention, the syringe  12  is filled with a desired liquid, such as formula or cream. The guard  28  is attached to the syringe  12  and the nipple structure  36  is attached to the syringe  12  so as to maintain the guard  28  in place. The device  10  is now ready for use. The kitten is fed the liquid within the syringe  12  via the nipple  38  of the nipple structure  36 . The baby animal is able to scratch on or otherwise play with the scratch pad  34  of the guard  28  so as not to interfere with the hands of the feeder. 
     As seen in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , in an alternate embodiment of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard  110 , a plate  142  has a central opening  144  which central opening  144  is fitted over the hub  20  of the syringe  12 . The nipple structure  36  holds the plate  142  in the usual way as described for the first embodiment of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard  10 . A stand  146  has a front face  148  located on a forward leg  150  thereof, a support leg  152 , and a slot  154  with a cutaway portion  156 . A scratch pad  134  is removably attached to the front face  148  of the stand  146 . The scratch pad  134  is made in similar fashion to the previously described scratch pad  34  such as foam or similar material covered in an appropriate cover such as cloth, leather, Nylon, etc., or other appropriate covering material and acts as a scratching pad for a kitten or other baby animal. The removable attachment of the scratch pad  134  to the front face  148  of the stand  146  may be by any appropriate means known including the use of a first portion  158  of cooperating hook and loop material (which includes the new cooperating hook and pile material) attached on the underside of the scratch pad  134  and a corresponding second portion  160  of cooperating hook and loop material attached to the front face  148  of the stand  146  so that the first portion  158  of hook and loop material cooperatively mates with the second portion  160  of hook and loop material in order to attach the scratch pad  134  to the front face  148  of the stand  146 . The forward leg  150  and the support leg  152  act together to make the stand  146  freestanding. Of course other architectures can be used to make the stand  146  freestanding. For example, the forward leg  150  may have a horizontally extending support (not illustrated) which support holds the stand  146  upright without the need for a support leg. 
     In order to use this embodiment of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard  110  of the present invention, the syringe  12  is filled with a desired liquid, such as formula or cream. The plate  142  is attached to the syringe  12  and the nipple structure  36  is attached to the syringe  12  so as to maintain the plate  142  in place. The scratch pad  134  is attached to the front face  148  of the stand  146 . The plate  142  is slid into the slot  154  at the top of the stand  146  so that the plate&#39;s opening  144 —and the held syringe  12 —is within the cutaway portion  156 . The syringe  12  is now held in place attached to the stand  146 . The kitten may now feed from the device  110  as desired. The baby animal is able to scratch on or otherwise play with the scratch pad  134  attached to the stand  146  so as not to interfere with the hands of the feeder. If the animal is sufficiently strong so as to be able to suck liquid out of the syringe without the need for a caregiver to depress the plunger  16 , the animal may be left unattended with this embodiment of the syringe feeder with nipple and guard  110 . When feeding is over, the plate  142  and its held syringe  12  are slid out of the slot  154 , the nipple structure  36  is removed from the hub  20  and thereafter the plate  142  is removed from the hub  20 . The syringe  12  is refilled, cleaned, or otherwise disposed of as needed. The scratch pad  134  may be removed from the front face  148  of the stand  146  in order to be cleaned or replaced as needed. 
     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.