Sojos vs Grandma Lucy's

So I'm feeding Sojos right now and I really like the way the dogs are doing on it and want to stick with Freeze-dried. I was looking at Chewy's to see what all is available and I found Grandma Lucy's and I'm wondering what everyone thinks about it? I contacted Grandma Lucy's about samples, but I would have to buy them plus pay shipping... So I think I'd rather just buy the full bag. Anyway, here is the info for the two foods I am debating between. I'm pretty strongly leaning towards ordering the Grandma Lucy's food.

Sojos:
4 Stars on Dog food advisor
$70 for 8lbs

Ingredients:

Turkey, sweet potato, whole egg, broccoli, celery, apples, flax meal, pecans, tricalcium phosphate, pumpkin, cranberries, basil, dried alfalfa, ginger root, dried kelp, zinc sulfate, vitamin E acetate, vitamin D3, vitamin A palmitate

Protein 26% Min
Fat 12% Min
Fiber 7.6% Max
Kcal 338/cup

Grandma Lucy's:
5 Stars on Dog food advisor
$67 for 10lbs

Ingredients:

USDA Chicken, Chickpeas, Flax, Carrots, Celery, Apples, Bananas, Blueberries, Cranberries, Pumpkin, Papaya, Spinach, Garlic, Rosemary, Vitamin A, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, Niacin, Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Potassium, Manganese, Chloride, Copper, Magnesium, Pyridoxine, Cyanocobalamin

Crude Protein (min): 34%
Crude Fat (min): 9%
Crude Fiber (max): 6.5%
Moisture (max): 6.1%
Calcium (min): 1%
Phosphorus (max): 0.46%
Magnesium (max): 0.14%


4162 kcal/kg (calculated)
591 cal/cup (calculated)

15 cups per 3lb bag (approximately) - makes 15lbs of fresh food
50 cups per 10lb bag (approximately) - makes 50lbs of fresh food

Boo was/is on Grandma Lucy's as a part of her diet. She likes the stuff and does well on it. The only reason why it's a "was/is part of her diet" and not just an "is part of her diet" is because my family has gotten lazy to the point that they don't like to wait for the food to soak and so tend just to give her kibble because it's easier. But then again, besides kibble, you really can't get much easier than freeze dried. A plus is that it's great for hikes and the likes because it's so so light!

I have no experience with Sojos, so I can't be of help there. But I've been impressed with Grandma Lucy's. There will typically be some larger chunks of chicken or whatever the meat source you're buying is on top of the finer powder, but most is ground. I did like that Grandma Lucy's was a bit chunkier in texture than sojos which seemed to be ground so finely that it was just a powder. Obviously this makes little to no difference in nutritional quality, but it was just a personal preference. It looks a bit less like sludge.

Plus, I think it smells amazing!

Sojos DOES look a bit like smudge. Haha. Great to hear from someone who uses Grandma Lucy's. Has she ever been on Grandma Lucy's consecutively that you could remember what her poops looked like? Part of what I really like about Sojos is the small, ashy, no stink poops. Haha.

And yes, I am really loving Freeze-Dried. Super easy to feed(only 1 step above kibble) but they do SO well on it. It's more like a home cooked meal for them. I also like that you rehydrate it and how easy it is to rehydrate. Kibble always makes my dogs super thirsty but it takes forever to really soak up water when trying to rehydrate it. This soaks it up in the span of 1 TV show. It's perfect.

Tbh, I don't know that her feces has ever really been small and ashy, but she usually only poops 1x per day and that was no different on freeze dried. It definitely didn't give her runny stools, but I don't know that it really made them smaller or firmer either. To be fair, though, even when she was consistently being fed freeze dried, she would typically get only 1/4 to 1/3 of her diet as freeze dried, just because of the expense. The rest would be a mid-grade kibble like Avoderm or Kirklands, so that I'm sure also was a contributing factor to her stool.

We keep Grandma Lucy's at the kennel for dogs who have a bad stress reaction to being boarded (always ok'd by owner). I've eyeballed it many times in debate of using it for my own dogs. The dogs at work seem to bounce back quickly after being on it.

I've also eaten a bowl once (yeah, yeah) when I was STARVING and on a long shift... It did not taste bad at all. And was quite filling.

Maybe this post was more than you bargained for? Lol!

Ok, whatever the contest was.... You win. Haha. I was def not expecting that response, but honestly none of the ingredients are really that bad, so whatever. At least I have an official endorsement that it doesn't taste horrible or anything.

I'm glad to hear the stressy dogs do well on it, I'm going to order a bag tonight then. Your comment is the gold star for me to go for it.

So Muffin has always had friggin gross teeth. Like Nasty, nasty nasty. The only time they looked good was when we were 100% prey model raw. Well I just checked his teeth and they look pretty dang good.... He gets duckfeet and the occasional bully stick, but that hasn't changed. The only diet change has been Sojo's. I have no idea if it's really linked at all, but his teeth have been a constant battle.... So happy right now.

Did you have to get dental cleanings?

How long were you on sojos? How did you like the bag of grandma Lucy's?