loss of enzyme effectivity by long incubation

[jkblack]

Does anyone know if enzymes lose effectiveness if you incubate too long? I set my dogs food out and let it incubate over night (room temp). It has not seemed to cause problems for my dog but I am wondering if the enzyme loses its effectiveness after a period of time. Is there a technical measure in general or even a "rule of thumb" by experience? I have thought of contacting the manufacturer(s) but thought someone on this forum may already have researched this. Thanks so much!

[jilbert57]

I am not sure about the enzyme losing its effectiveness but I would worry about bacteria growth overnight. That would cause stomach upset. You can't refrigerate as it stops enzyme activity.

Jill

[Eddiespaghetti]

I was honestly thinking about this kind of thing last night. Due to traveling for the holidays. In theory, if you incubate the enzymes and put them in the refrigerator overnight. The cold could put the enzymes in a stopped state. If you warm them up a little before feeding would the enzymes come back to life? In kind of the same way yeast does?
But to your question, the enzymes shouldn't lose effectiveness due to long incubation times. I would try to put in an air tight container to hopefully keep the bacteria away. Or even have it sit in the microwave or oven, off of course.

[jilbert57]

I am not sure about the enzyme losing its effectiveness but I would worry about bacteria growth overnight. That would cause stomach upset. You can't refrigerate as it stops enzyme activity.

Jill

[jkblack]

Thanks Jill and Eddie for your responses. I always cover the food as soon as I start incubating and it stays covered until I am ready to feed. I also have heard that once you incubate for 20+ minutes and if you refrigerate after that, once the food is in the dog's stomach, the food is sufficiently warmed so that the enzyme is effective. That seems to make sense.

[Chance]

I had been told by Joe from Pantenex that enzymes begin to degrade immediately once incubation begins. They recommend incubation of no more than 20 to 30 minutes, especially if new to enzymes.

Having said that, I had dabbled with different options to try to make the incubation thing more feasible for us (before ultimately switching to Creon and ending it completely)!

Many times I did mix the enzymes in the (raw) food overnight, and feed in the morning. No issues!

I had also dabbled with mixing Enzymes in a big batch of (still raw) food and incubating for close to an hour before freezing. Each meal; take out a meal to thaw for the next. And feeding normally. For a good few days this was fine! No issues. After a few days, I started to notice warning signs...larger than normal poops more often! Ignore that warning, and quickly had full blown setback! Adding more fresh enzymes and incubating again resolved the issue. This tells me clearly enzyme potency was lost
Obviously not feasible method, and defeated my purpose. (I had tried once with Pantenex, and once later with Enzyme Diane. As Chance did not seem to do as well on Pantenex).

This told me that *MY* dog can't tolerate food that was treated then frozen for more than a few days. I never did try refrigerated vs frozen, simply because I had not been comfortable with refrigerating raw meat for days, especially since EPI. But other people have tried similar types of things. Some had success much longer than I did. So it seems to depend on the dog