Since I am an old-fashioned girl, my first thought when someone mentions meat tenderizer is a meat mallet, a small metal kitchen tool I often use to beat on the meat until it becomes soft. Nowadays, many people add different commercial products to prepare the meat for a delicious dinner.
Dog owners often use enzymes to prevent coprophagia (poop-eating) in their dogs. If you spot that your physically healthy dog has such a behavior problem, you should find a way to stop it. Once you decide to use some of the products available, you only need to check how much meat tenderizer should be added to dog food and start with the treatment. Let’s see.
Meat tenderizer is basically a naturally derived enzyme powder. The most commonly used is papayas’ enzyme papain and pineapples’ enzyme bromelain. Once you sprinkle this powder over the meat, the enzyme will break down the tough meat fibers.
Nowadays, you can find these products with or without seasonings, depending on your dog’s taste. However, you can also get the same effect by marinating meat in pineapple or papaya juice.
Why Your Dog Eats His Own Poop
Here are some of the top reasons for coprophagia in dogs:
It’s normal for mother dogs to eat the puppies’ stool to keep their nest clean and to instinctively protect their puppies from predators that might be attracted by the scents of the poop. They usually do this until their litters are weaned and have started leaving the nest to defecate, sometimes between 4-5 weeks.
Unfortunately, this behavior can be picked up pretty soon by the puppies. Since they don’t know any better, they can continue to exist eating their poops even after they are adults. Don’t let this continue, do behavioral training as soon as you catch your dog doing this.
Aside from following their mom’s lead, another common reason why dogs start eating their own feces is food-related causes such as diets deficient in nutrients and calories. Because of the lack of nutrients and calories in their dog foods, the dogs may try to eat their own poop to re-digest it.
This is why you should always ensure that you feed your dog a food that is appropriately formulated for his breed and life stage.
Other things to be cautious of are parasites and worms. They may consume your dog’s food and leave him hungry right after meals, which compel your dog to re-ingest his own stool to satisfy the hunger.
The appearance of certain ingredients such as corn, soy, and wheat can cause some dogs to have difficulty digesting the foods, even if they are high in protein. Consequently, your dog’s food may pass through his digestive system unchanged.
As a result, your dog may mistakenly make a connection between his poop and the food that he ate a few hours ago and will be unable to tell the difference.
Dogs who spend a whole day alone or confined in a small space are more likely to eat poop than those dogs who live close to their humans for whatever reason, whether it is out of boredom or because there is no one to feed them.
These two mental conditions are strong contributors to a dog eating poop. There are myriads of reasons as to why your dog might get stressed, such as a new home, new baby, new puppy, and changes in schedules or routines.
Dogs can also get anxious from getting the wrong house-training method, for example, when you punish your dog too much. In an attempt to get away from punishment, he may eat his own poop to hide it from you the next time he has a poop accident.
The more lonely dogs feel, the more attention they crave. They will do anything to the extent of eating their own poop just to get their owners’ attention. If you see your dog doing this, just stay calm and don’t give in to provocations.
The byproduct of consuming high-protein dog food is tasty poop (at least to your dog). So, as hilarious as it sounds, some dogs eat their stools simply because they like the taste. (1)
What Is The Fuss With Meat Tenderizer in Dog Food?
Well, meat tenderizer is a product used to tenderize meat. It contains proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain that digest protein.
Bromelain is produced by certain fruits like pineapple stems. When added to dog food, it increases protein digestion thus altering the taste of the waste.
The enzyme literally derives almost all of the protein from the poop so your dog will be discouraged from consuming it.
For a dog that suffers from coprophagia or eating stools, meat tenderizer makes poop less appealing hence discouraging the disgusting behavior.
How Do You Add Meat Tenderizer to Your Dog’s Food?
If you’ve used a meat tenderizer to soften your meats, you know that you apply it when the meat is raw.
Most meat tenderizers come in powdered form. To add them to your dog’s food, simply moisten the surface of the meats.
Next, sprinkle a dash of the tenderizer and pierce the surface a few times with a fork to get the tenderizer to penetrate the meat.
Wait for a few minutes then start the cooking process.
FAQ
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