Patent ID: 8333167

Claim:
An animal-feeding installation, comprising: adjacent animal enclosures arranged side-by-side next to each other, the adjacent animal enclosures configured for feeding a first animal in a first animal enclosure and feeding a second animal in an adjacent second animal enclosure; and a liquid feed dispenser ( 4 ) positioned stationary with respect to the animal enclosures, the liquid feed dispenser comprised of a nipple assembly ( 10 ) for dispensing liquid feed to the animals within the adjacent animal enclosures, the nipple assembly comprised of a single feeding nipple ( 6 ), a pivot ( 14 ), a feed supply ( 20 ) fixedly positioned with respect to the animal enclosures, and a bias element ( 16 ), an open proximal end ( 18 ) of the pivot attached to an outlet port of the feed supply, the feeding nipple mounted on the pivot so that the feeding nipple is pivotable back and forth between extremes of a range of pivotability with the liquid feed dispenser ( 4 ) positioned stationary with respect to the animal enclosures, thereby allowing feeding of the animals in each of the animal enclosures, wherein i) the feeding nipple being positioned in a first portion of the range of pivotability enables the first animal to feed from the feeding nipple while prohibiting the second animal from feeding from the feeding nipple, and ii) moving the feeding nipple, via the pivot, from the first portion of the range of pivotability to a second portion of the range of pivotability enables the second animal to feed from the feeding nipple while prohibiting the first animal from feeding from the feeding nipple, the bias element arranged to maintain the feeding nipple in a neutral position between the extremes of the range of pivotability when not feeding the animals, the neutral position being an alignment location between the first and second animal enclosures such that the feeding nipple is graspable by both the first animal and the second animal respectively to draw the feeding nipple into an orientation of the first portion of the range of pivotability for feeding the first animal and into an orientation of the second portion of the range of pivotability for feeding the second animal.