Sojos Dog Food

Brief Overview

Sojos, also known as Sojourner Farms, is raw pet food with the water removed, as they tell you on their web site.  The company makes both complete foods and pre-mixes. In both cases, you need to add water to the food when you prepare it for your dog. You are supposed to add fresh meat to the pre-mixed food. The complete food is supposed to be a complete diet for your dog. Since the food is dehydrated, adding water to the food makes it expand. The food is expensive but since it is concentrated, you are actually buying more food than it seems. According to the company, an 8-lb bag of Sojos rehydrates to 40 pounds of raw food.

According to the company web site, Sojos began in 1985 in Michigan with a premix created in a kitchen. This was Sojos Original. The company also began making gourmet treats.  After being sold in 1996, the company is now located in Minnesota and is operated as a family-owned business.

Who Manufactures Sojos?

Sojos makes their products at their own facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Disclosure: Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which will direct you to our partner sites. If you purchase the pet foods we recommend through those links, we may earn a small commission – at no extra cost to you.

Sojos Recalls 2017

Please Read First: If this statement is still here we are actively watching for new recalls. Below you will find a history of recalls. If you would like to know as SOON as we find out about a recalls visit:https://dogfood.guru/dog-food-recalls/ and fill out our Recall Alert form. We will ONLY email this list in the event of an actual recall. Once we stop watching for Recalls I will remove this statement.

We also encourage everyone to bookmark the site for future reference.

We did not find any recalls for Sojos in the FDA or AVMA databases. (Note that the AVMA database is not as useful as it used to be since it only goes back one year now.)

Sojos Dog Food Coupons

To find Sojos coupons, check Coupons.com, DogFoodDirect.com, and PromoPro.com. You can also check retail dog food sites such as Chewy.com which consistently offer up to 30% Off for new customers and free shipping on orders over $49.

Sojos Dog Food Overview

As already mentioned, Sojos makes two kinds basic kinds of raw food: complete and pre-mixes. Both kinds of food are dehydrated so the dog owner has to add water to the food before feeding the dog. The food is expensive but it’s also very concentrated. Once you add moisture to the food, it makes several times as much food as the dehydrated version. This is very convenient for many dog owners who want to feed a raw diet but don’t want the mess that often goes with it. You don’t have to give your dog raw meaty bones, or grind meat, or let your dog drag greasy raw food around the floor. If you prefer to add your own meat to the food, pre-mixes are supposed to make it easier for you to balance out your dog’s nutritional needs.

Dogaware.com, a site we always respect, refers to Sojos (and several other brands) as “Seemingly Complete Diets.” They point out that Sojos makes no mention of AAFCO on their web site. Dogaware.com says that the food would be all right to use in rotation with other dog foods, but they do not recommend feeding Sojos exclusively. We agree with this assessment.

If you decide to feed Sojos, it would probably be prudent to rotate it regularly with other dog foods to make sure all of your dog’s nutritional needs are being met. We don’t expect a pre-mix to be complete and balanced, but we would expect the complete meals to meet AAFCO approval, regardless of what some raw pet food makers claim as they try to explain why their foods do not have AAFCO approval. AAFCO standards are not the greatest thing since kibble was invented. They do have some issues. But they are a minimum almost universally used throughout the U.S. pet food industry. If dog foods can’t meat these standards, owners need to use caution. The ingredients in a pet food may be outstanding, but it’s always important that nutrients are combined in the appropriate proportions. A dog can get sick from too much of a good thing just as he can from poor quality ingredients. Even too much or too little of a vitamin or mineral can make a dog sick. There are raw dehydrated dog foods that meet AAFCO approval, so it can be done. Take Primal Freeze-Dried Formula’s and Stella and Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose Patties for example.

In terms of product lines, Sojos makes Sojos Complete, Sojos Wild, and Sojos Pre-Mix. Their complete formulas are grain free and gluten-free. They currently come in three formulas: Sojos Lamb Complete Dog Food, Sojos Turkey Complete Dog Food, and Sojos Beef Complete Dog Food. One pound of dehydrated food rehydrates to make four pounds of raw food. Sample guaranteed analysis: 26/12/7/10 for protein/fat/fiber/moisture, with 338 kcal/cup (rehydrated).

Their Sojos Wild product line includes Sojos Wild Venison, Sojos Wild Boar, and Sojos Wild Salmon. These foods include human-grade vegetables and fruits, including peas and sweet potatoes. They also contain eggs, in case your dog is allergic to eggs. These foods contain no grains or glutens, no sugar or salt, and, according to the company, no “genetically engineered” ingredients. We have no idea what that means since the term normally used is “genetically-modified organism” or GMO. It’s estimated that up to 80 percent of the processed foods in the U.S. have been genetically modified, so chances are that you and your dog are eating GMO foods. (You can find lots of information on the Internet about GMOs, pro and con. This may be the first time we have seen a dog food make reference to the debate.) The Sojos Wild foods make five pounds of raw food from one pound of dehydrated dog food. Sample guaranteed analysis: 43/13.5/6.7/10 for protein, fat, fiber, and moisture, with 241 kcal/cup (rehydrated).

Sojos has two pre-mixes: Sojos Grain Free Dog Food Mix and Sojos Original Dog Food Mix (the product that started it all for Sojos). Add meat to the grain free mix; add meat and veggies or just meat to the original dog food mix. Sojos Original Dog Food Mix was formerly called European-Style in case you are looking for this food. Sojos Grain Free Dog Food Mix was formerly called Europa if you are looking for that food. While pre-mixes are supposed to be balanced when you add your own meat or other ingredients to them, it can be difficult to get the nutrition right with these mixes. Everyone who uses them will add their own kind of meat in varying amounts. While they can probably accommodate a certain amount of variety (and even benefit from changing meat and other ingredients to a certain extent), there’s no way to know if your dog’s nutritional needs are being met since you aren’t controlling all of the ingredients in the pre-mixes.

In addition, Sojos makes a number of treats for dogs: Simply Beef (Lamb, or Turkey); Good Dog Chicken Pot Pie Dog Treats (Peanut Butter & Jelly Dog Treats, Apple Dumpling Dog Treats, Blueberry Cobbler Dog Treats); Grain Free Lamb & Sweet Potato Dog Treats (Duck & Cherry Dog Treats); Sojos Bacon Cheddar Dog Treats (Peanut Butter & Honey Dog Treats, Chicken Veggie Dog Treats); Big Dog Biscuits & Gravy Dog Treats (Beef Stew Dog Treats).

We should mention that Sojos also makes cat food in case you are interested in a raw diet for cats.

We note that people buying Sojos often rave about the food and how much their dogs seem to enjoy it. However, some customers mention that the products are inconsistent.  Some bags of food have lots of dehydrated meat while others have nothing but dehydrated sweet potatoes, for example. Stores and/or the company have seemed to be willing to fix the problems but this is something that the company should address since it has happened to more than one customer. It’s even more important for the company to fix the problem since the foods are made by the family-run business.

How would you rate Sojos Pet Food?

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Sojos Wild Boar Review

We’ve selected Sojos Wild Boar to review from Sojos’s Wild product line. These foods have a higher protein percentage than the Sojos Complete dog foods and they are both grain free and gluten free, so they may appeal to a lot of dog owners today. There are other dog foods that use wild boar meat but it is still slightly unusual so dogs who have problems eating more conventional meat proteins, such as chicken or lamb, might be able to eat it. The other meat proteins in this product line are venison and salmon.

This is a dehydrated dog food. According to Sojos, one pound of dehydrated food makes five pounds of rehydrated raw food. Sojos says the food has no “genetically-engineered” ingredients (see above) and no salt or sugar. They have an article on their web site about GMOs in pet food, if you are interested in reading it. (Note: this is a highly controversial topic. However, if you try to insist on finding GMO-free dog food, your dog will probably starve. Even foods that claim to be entirely GMO-free may not be so if you examine all of the ingredients closely. A cow can eat grain that is GMO, then the meat or milk or butter or cottage cheese gets into the food supply. It only takes one ingredient to ruin a company’s claim of being GMO-free. We would prefer not to look too closely at these claims, especially while the FDA does not require products to be labeled.)

The first five ingredients in this food are: wild boar, whole egg, cranberries, celery root, and green peas. Wild boar is an excellent source of protein and one that most dogs enjoy. The meat is 75 percent protein and 25 percent fat. It’s a good source of B6, thiamin, and niacin, as well as zinc and selenium. It’s also an excellent source of omega-6 fatty acid which is good for your dog’s joints. Since this is the first ingredient in this raw food, there should be plenty of meat in the food.

The second ingredient is whole eggs. Whole eggs are perfectly good for most dogs to eat. At one time people worried about avidin and biotin in eggs and would urge you not to eat egg yolks for fears about high cholesterol. But eggs are in favor again, including whole eggs. They are good for your dog and your dog doesn’t need to worry about his cholesterol. They are 35 percent protein, 63 percent fat, and 2 percent carbs. Eggs are a great source of nutrition and very high quality protein, and they contain a tremendous amount of omega-6 fatty acid. Eggs also contain choline which helps with brain function and which is normally added to dog foods to help a dog’s metabolism and to help many body systems function better. If whole eggs are added to the food, there is no need to add choline in a chemical form. We should mention that some dogs can have allergies to eggs. They are one of the most frequent triggers for food allergies in dogs, but that would still mean that the vast majority of dogs would have no problem with them.

The third ingredient is cranberries. Cranberries are a fruit/berry sometimes considered a “super food” because of their nutrients and antioxidant properties. Still, they are the third ingredient in a dog food – that’s a lot of cranberries. Cranberries are a good source if dietary fiber and they provide vitamin C as well as manganese. They also provide some vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) and vitamin K. In terms of nutrition, they are 95 percent carbohydrates, 3 percent protein, and 2 percent fat. As an antioxidant, of course, cranberries are a natural preservative.

The fourth ingredient in the food is celery root. Celery root is also known as celeriac. It is an edible root vegetable with a taste something like parsley/celery. It seems to have a very strong flavor.  Celery root has 10 percent protein, 6 percent fat, and 84 percent carbohydrates. It provides dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorus, vitamin B6, magnesium, potassium, and manganese. No idea if this is really something that dogs would want to eat.

The fifth ingredient in this food is green peas. This should be the small, soft green peas that come several in a pod instead of field peas or some of the other peas that can be harder for dogs to digest. Green peas are 22 percent protein, 2 percent fat, and 76 percent carbs. They are a good source of dietary fiber and they provide some important vitamins and minerals such as vitamin K, thiamin and manganese, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, riboflavin, niacin, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, and copper. As long as your dog has no problem digesting them, they should not be a problem. Mushy peas are fine. They usually only become a problem when there is too much fiber.

Other interesting ingredients in this raw food include purple sweet potatoes. We are not familiar with purple sweet potatoes but we find them here.  We don’t know why the sweet potatoes have to be purple, but we see that they are non-GMO. If this is important to you, this is what you are paying for with this food. Normal sweet potatoes are 6 percent protein, 1 percent fat, and 93 percent carbs. We’re not sure what the percentages are for purple sweet potatoes. The purple sweet potatoes should be a good source of dietary fiber.

The food also contains flax seeds. Flax seeds provide some good nutrition such as dietary fiber and omega-3 fatty acid, but they are also a source of phytoestrogens that can play havoc with the hormonal cycle of female dogs. If you are a dog breeder, you should be careful about feeding dog foods that contain flax seed and other phytoestrogens.

Dried kelp provides iodine and other trace minerals. Chard is a good source of vitamin A. Coconut is another source of dietary fiber. Coconut (usually coconut oil) is very trendy with dog owners at the moment but its health benefits for dogs are questionable. See this page for more information.

The food also contains dried alfalfa. Alfalfa is highly valued as a hay for horses and other livestock and humans can enjoy alfalfa sprouts but there are some reasons why it sometimes appears in dog foods. Naturally dried alfalfa can have between 14 and 22 percent protein, 5 percent (or less) crude fat, and between 15 and 30 percent crude fiber. It is a good source of insoluble dietary fiber. It is also a very good source of calcium as well as potassium, beta-carotene, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, B vitamins, and some trace minerals. However, there are reasons why you would not want to give your dog alfalfa, at least not in large amounts. Like some other legumes, alfalfa is a phytoestrogen and it can produce infertility in animals that eat it in large amounts. Alfalfa also has anti-nutrients which can keep an animal from absorbing the nutrients it needs from its food. It usually requires quite a bit of alfalfa to produce some of these effects, but sometimes it’s better simply not to use an ingredient if there is a potential for problems.

The food also contains ginger root. Ginger root won’t hurt your dog (in small amounts). Many breeders and dog owners have given their carsick dogs ginger cookies for decades. It can help with minor nausea and to settle an upset stomach. Lots of benefits are ascribed to ginger for human health. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will produce the same benefits in dogs. We’re not sure why this food has ginger root in it unless it is to help with gas.

The food also has a few added vitamins and minerals which, presumably, are not included in the food ingredients. It’s always good when the vitamins and minerals in dog food come from the food ingredients instead of added “condiments.”

The food contains 268 calories per cup. This is moderately low in terms of calories for dog food today.

Nutrition Statement
There is no AAFCO statement for this food. The company provides nutrient profiles. We almost never find a reputable food that does not provide an AAFCO statement.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

The dry matter basis figures for this food are: 42.2 percent protein; 23.3 percent fat; 6.9 percent fiber; 18.7 percent carbohydrates.

This food has a very high protein percentage and a high percentage of fat. The fiber content is also higher than average most kibbles while the carb percentage is quite moderate compared to other dog foods.

We like some of the ingredients in this food and frankly, we think some of them are just weird. We appreciate the fact that having GMO ingredients are important to some dog owners and if you are one of them, you will probably like this food. We think it’s more important to have an all-around good dog food instead of focusing on one issue. We are also bothered by the fact that the food does not have an AAFCO approval. It is hard to recommend a dog food that does not meet this minimum, even if it seems to have some good ingredients.

Where can you buy Sojos dog food?

You can buy Sojos online from pet food retailers, on the Sojo web site, and from local pet stores.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a raw diet for your dog there are other raw foods that have AAFCO approval. However, there are probably many people who will like this food for various reasons. They have foods that are grain free, gluten-free, and GMO-free. Many of the ingredients look very good and they have never had a recall. We have some issues with some of the ingredients. In particular, if you are a dog breeder their foods contain some ingredients that mimic estrogens and can interfere with your dog’s hormones. Whether these ingredients are present in large enough amounts to cause problems, we can’t say for sure. Going back to our earlier statement, we agree with DogAware.com – if you feed this food, you should rotate it with other dog foods to make sure your dog is getting all of the nutrients he needs.