US Patent 7228816 Animal feeding device and method

An automated feeding system for pets with special diets includes a feeder dish which is made accessible to a pet only when an ID tag on the pet is recognized as authorized by a receiver on the device and only for a certain time period. The appropriate amount of food is thereby made available at appropriate time intervals. If a plurality of tags is pre-programmed as authorized, each animal's tag can sequentially activate the feeding device to feed each animal, respectively. However, if more than one authorized tag is present in the feeding time set for one animal, the drawer closes.