Patent ID: 7252049

Claim:
An animal feeder, comprising: a hopper for storing animal feed and having at least one opening for releasing the animal feed, a horizontally oriented rotatable distribution wheel rotatable about its vertical axis, disposed to encounter and scatter the animal feed, rotatably connected to the hopper and having an opening so that feed is released when the opening in the distribution controller rotates into alignment with the at least one opening in the hopper, a stirrer supported by the distribution controller and rotatably mounted within the hopper and coupled to a rotation transfer means to encounter the animal feed stored therein and guide the feed into the at least one opening in the hopper, a horizontally oriented distribution wheel rotatable about its vertical transverse axis, disposed to encounter and scatter the animal feed, a wheel supporting the animal feeder and adapted to rotate when the feeder is moved, and the rotation transfer means for imparting the rotation of the wheel to the distribution controller and causing animal feed to be released as the feeder is moved, the distribution controller being configured to distribute the animal feed in a manner such that an animal proximate to the feeder is entertained and exercised in fetching the animal feed.