Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $19.95
Sale Price: $17.95
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

After transitioning from Natural Balance Duck and Potato, we've gone through several bags of Sojo's Turkey over the course of several months, so I feel I can write a fair review.

Our dogs are small poodle mixes, rescue dogs, weighing 10 lb., 10 lb. and 7 lb. We follow the Sojo instructions mixing water to food in the recommended 2:1 ratio. We feed twice a day. I've spoken to customer service a few times with questions and they've been super nice, although they didn't always have helpful answers.

Impressions: The food smells great (even to me!) and the dogs go bonkers for it. They love every bite.

Sojo's has variable consistency some bags were a powdery consistency creating a mush when mixed with water. These are the best bags everything becomes part of the thick mush.

Other bags have big chopped pieces of veggies/meat these are not my favorite bags. The added water hydrates the pieces and then creates a ton of watery gravy too much fluid to feed the dogs.

After a month our dogs each lost a pound of body weight. They had no body fat to lose so it was a bit distressing. They warn that fat/weight will come off a dog after switching to Sojo's and then an appropriate amount of weight will be gained back. Our dogs never gained it back. I was feeding the amount recommended for dogs up to 12 lbs (which should be more than enough food for our pups).

Despite this, for an hour or two before each meal time all three pups were clearly in distress shaking, quivering, starving. This went on for many weeks before I decided there is something lacking in this food. (I didn't know if this was excitement for the yummy food or actual weakness/lack of energy, so I gave it some time.) I even tried feeding more than the 12 lb. dog amount enough to supposedly sustain a much bigger dog and still they were quivering and weak (and our dog food budget was taking a big hit).

I should mention that during this time, in an attempt to maintain a Sojo's-only diet, I bought Sojo's Grain-free and added some of that to the turkey blend in their bowl. The Grain-free deserves a review of it's own, but let's just say it's pretty smelly. It's smells strongly of broccoli. Not bad thing, just smelly.

I have slowly transitioned them back to a mix of the two Sojo's and Natural Balance (ratio of 2:1). Now our pups are happy again, they aren't shaking and panicked at meal time.

The claim that dogs will have better teeth and better breath... Sojo's breath does seem a bit nicer (due to the parsley I assume) but their teeth were not cleaner. I imagine a professional cleaning plus feeding Sojo's exclusively might result in teeth staying cleaner. Feeding this food doesn't change the current cleanliness of their teeth (though their customer service rep tried to spin it this way).

Sojo's has high water content so our dogs urinated constantly. That's a good thing for their kidneys, but a bad thing for our little guy who can't hold his pee. He had a million accidents while on Sojo's.

Sojo's has high fiber content so our dogs became poop machines. Non-stop poop makers. This is good for their anal glands, but it really gave me and our septic system a run for its money (we dispose of their feces in the toilet). Tell-tale was the comment by our groomer when we picked up our little 7 pounder: "He did a human size poop. How did he have all that in him?" Exactly. That's Sojo's.

And the worst, most telling, example that Sojo's didn't provide adequate nutrition... About 4 hours after eating, our little guy would go out to the dog yard and chew on old Sojo's poop. There are visible bits of undigested veggies in Sojo's poop (from the Grain-free) and he would pick them apart and eat them. He was starving. Now that Natural Balance is mixed into his meals he no longer eats poop. He's happy and content. [Only on an all-Sojo's diet did he have this pica behavior. The veggie bits are still in the feces, but he has no interest and no need to eat them. Another spin from customer service: "The dogs love Sojo's so much I've heard they will eat the poop." Now we know the pica behavior is driven by hunger, not passion.]

I equate Sojo's to the old saying about eating Chinese food "two hours later, you're hungry".

In any case, I think we're all very happy now with the mix of food. They have lots of yummy veggies, some turkey and the kibble that sustains them. I wish Sojo's was enough, but it's not. I'm glad to have found a solution without giving up Sojo's altogether. And so are our dogs.

UPDATE 072013: We've been feeding this combination for a good while now and we just took one of our dogs in for a dental cleaning. The vet was surprised to realize our dog has a bunch of teeth that are loose but not diseased. She said the dog needs something to chew on for resistance, to help strengthen the teeth. She recommended we feed a raw chicken wing as a meal once or twice a week. This is a vet who sells ONLY Sojos food. So, be aware that feeding an extremely soft, wet raw food may affect your dog's health both positively and negatively.

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

I have a 7 year old Australian Shepherd who thrives on this food. She never has health problems and eats this food with gusto, especially when compared to kibble (wouldn't you?) I typically make enough food for 3 or 4 days and store it in a lock and lock container in the fridge. I've always had an interest in feeding raw (and do occasionally give a turkey or chicken neck) but I also travel a lot and needed something I could bring along easily.

She had previously been eating a super premium kibble, but I like the idea of real unprocessed food so much more. The benefits are undeniable.

I am shocked to hear that several reviewers are supplementing with rice. This is a grain FREE food, as dogs are not really meant to eat/digest grains. It being grain free is what makes it so costly. The Honest Kitchen makes similar canine diets with grains for what I consider to be significantly less cost. If I wanted my Sojos to go a little farther I'd probably add egg or some raw ground meat.

The 8lb bag lasts her around 6 weeks, which is about how long the 28.6lb bag of super premium kibble she was previously eating lasted (and for around the same price).

Thanks to Amazon for the always-perfect service. I love being able to order this food with expedited shipping to my door for less than the price of buying it in store.

Buy Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix Now

I have to say that this is the best food available. My puppy had been having dandruff and a dull coat on a diet of high quality, corn free kibble. Her coat was shiny and flake free within 24 hours of starting this diet, and she loves it (thats not saying much because she'll eat anything though). I ate some myself and it is pretty good. It feels good feeding a food that is actually FOOD, not mystery brown chunks. It is pricey, I feed it along with a homemade raw meat/veggie deal, but it is great for traveling.

I really wish it was more affordable so we could feed it to large dogs (we have two 90lb+ dogs). Check out Grandma Lucy's for a comparable product that is slightly cheaper. (10lbs for the price of 8lbs of sojos).

Read Best Reviews of Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix Here

I bought this for a road trip across the crountry and back. My dogs are raw fed and this seemed the closest to what I made at home. We spent 15 days on the road and our four dogs enjoyed every meal the entire trip. They ate the food with gusto and had totally normal poops the entire trip. I used ziploc bags to fix a meal ahead (they eat twice daily) and stored the soaking food in our ice chest. Now I use this food for weekend trips and have some stashed in our disaster kit.

Want Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix Discount?

I switched my Rottweiler/Lab mix, Jagger, from Natural Balance LID to Sojos Complete Turkey because he had very loose poops. I thought I would try something different. I made the switch in August 2012. At the time, he was a very healthy 77 lbs. He absolutely loved the smell and taste of the new food. After a few days, his poops were great. Being an active dog at this weight, I was feeding him 3 cups a day which, according to the package, was appropriate for adult dogs 76-100 lbs.

In October I noticed he started looking a little slimmer. This was slightly concerning because he was already so lean and muscular that he really should not have been losing weight. I thought that I needed to feed him more, so I upped the feeding amount to almost 3.75 cups. I thought this would be enough and he would replace the lost weight.

Come late December, I started noticing how much skinnier he had become. I could almost count his ribs while standing and he had lost significant muscle mass. He now weighed 66 lbs, meaning he lost nearly 16% of his body weight since starting him on Sojos. The vet did blood work and checked a stool sample and everything indicated that he should be perfectly healthy.

Using a dog food calorie calculator from dogfoodadvisor.com, Jagger needed 1800 calories a day. This resulted in 5.37 cups of Sojos daily, as the food only has 335 kcal/cup. Even worse, the Sojos grain-free mix, without any raw, dehydrated meat, contains 332 kcal/cup. In other words, you're paying for the extra meat but it offers no caloric benefit.

I called the company to make them aware of their misleading label and they said it could take a few months for a dog to adapt to Sojos. That may be, but calories are simply a unit of energy and a dog cannot adjust to that much of a deficiency.

Furthermore, dogfoodadvisor.com estimates that the food is comprised of 26% protein and 58% carbs. As dogs really have no need to consume any carbohydrates whatsoever, this food would probably only be mediocre even when fed at the proper amount. I switched my dog over to Orijen 6-Fish Grain-Free Dry Dog Food, 29.7lb just yesterday and will report back in a few weeks' time.

Sojos? More like So-NO-s!