Padding material for mice in laboratories   

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to synthetic padding material and, more particularly, to synthetic padding material that absorbs moisture and deodorizes and is edible and environmentally friendly.

Generally, to handle excrement and urine of mice and/or rat in laboratories, dry and sterilized wood flakes are used as padding material in cages. However, too much wood has been logged, and too few trees grown. If the excessive logging continues, we will soon run out of wood. The use of wood flakes as padding material will make the excessive logging worse. Moreover, gaps between wood flakes cannot be reduced by vacuum since they are inadequately elastic. That is, the volume of a pack of wood flakes cannot be considerably reduced. Therefore, the cost in the transportation of a pack of wood flakes is high. Consumer has to pay a lot of money for a pack of flakes.

There has been an attempt to use synthetic polymer as padding material. Synthetic polymer is however not edible. Mice might be effect the excrement result if they swallow flakes of synthetic polymer.

The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.

SUMMARY

It is an objective of the present invention to provide synthetic padding material that absorbs moisture and deodorizes and is edible and environmentally friendly.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide environmentally friendly synthetic padding material.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide synthetic padding material that is highly compressible.

According to the present invention, the edible synthetic padding material includes a major ingredient, a minor ingredient and adhesive. The major ingredient is made of edible natural fibers. The minor ingredient is made of nature elastic fibers. The adhesive bonds the major and minor ingredients.

Other objectives, advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description referring to the attached drawings.

The present invention will be described via the detailed illustration of six embodiment referring to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the production procedure of synthetic padding material according to the preferred embodiment of the present Invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a mice and/or rat in a cage wherein the synthetic padding material shown in FIG. 1 is shown.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is provided synthetic padding material 1 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The synthetic padding material 1 includes a major ingredient 11 of edible natural fibers, a minor ingredient 12 of elastic nature fibers and adhesive 13.

In the production of the synthetic padding material 1, the fibers of paper, straw, herbage and/or sawdust are used as the major ingredient 11. The fibers of hemp and/or silk are used as the minor ingredient 12. The starch of rice powder, wheat bran and/or corn is used as the adhesive 13. The major ingredient 11, the minor ingredient 12 and the adhesive 13 are processed with a special food processor 2. The major ingredient 11, the minor ingredient 12 and the adhesive 13 are sterilized at high-temperature, mixed with one another by a conveyor screw and extruded under high pressure. After the extrusion, the mixture meets cold air and form the synthetic padding material that contains a lot of bubbles. The amount of the bubbles is determined based on the temperature of the mixture. The synthetic padding material may be made in the form of flakes or threads.

The major ingredient 11 is used because it is adequately elastic, edible and light in weight and absorbs moisture. The minor ingredient 12 is used because it is adequately elastic and edible. The adhesive 13 is used because it is adhesive and edible. Therefore, the synthetic padding material 1 not only absorbs moisture and deodorizes but is also edible. The demand for wood is lower in making the synthetic padding material 1 than in making wood flakes as padding material as discussed in the BACKGROUND OF INVENTION. Moreover, the synthetic padding material 1 can be disposed in a pack and gaps therein can be reduced with a vacuum pump 3. The pack can be compact.

When the synthetic padding material 1 is taken from the pack, the minor ingredient 12 makes the synthetic padding material 1 expand and become puffy ready for use in cages as shown in FIG. 2.

The present invention has been described via the detailed illustration of the preferred embodiment. Those skilled in the art can derive variations from the preferred embodiment without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the preferred embodiment shall not limit the scope of the present invention defined in the claims.