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Wednesday, 4 February 2009

You either love it or hate it...but is it bad for dogs?

My young and healthy Jack Russell, Wilf, loves Marmite. My question is, due to it's salt content, is it likely to do him more harm than good? I don't give him too much- I smear about a quarter of a teaspoonful on a Bonio for him about twice a week.
Sara Marlow

Marmite - well, you either love it or hate it, as the saying goes, and Wilf obviously loves it. Marmite is mainly made of yeast extract and is a good source of B complex vitamins and minerals such as Zinc. It does have a relatively high salt content (about 11gms of salt per 100gms Marmite), but how harmful this is depends on how much you give. I believe a quarter teaspoonful will contain about 0.5 gms salt, which given twice a week will cause no worries, unless Wilf’s diet is exceptionally high in salt. You might be just as concerned about the ingredients in Bonio –

Bonio with Marrowbone. The ingredients are cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin (marrowbone 4 percent minimum), meat and animal derivatives, oils and fats, sugars, minerals, coloring (iron oxide), and antioxidants (BHA and BHT).

- such as its sugar content, the ‘derivatives’ and the antioxidants!

Richard Allport, vet

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