does anyone feed Sojo's

[Tatum]

Hi!

I bought the regular bag of Sojourner's mix today. When I opened it I found it appears to be a big bag of oats with a bit of other ingredients on the bag. It doesn't say anything about feeding bones, but calls for meat and veggies. I am wondering if this a complete diet? They say a suggestion for supplementing would be the veggies, but what about the vitamins, minerals etc, Do I need to supplement with a separate vitamin/mineral supplement. thanks so much for any replies.

 

[Herschel]

Sojourner Farm's Sojos line isn't a complete diet at all. It's essentially a supplement or add-on that is used in addition to raw or cooked meat. Thus, you should follow the guidelines of a standard raw diet for the amount of muscle meat, organ meat, and bone. As a supplement, Sojos is fairly expensive. Combined with raw (or cooked) meat, raw bones, fruits/vegetables (if you want), it is a complete diet. You don't need to supplement with additional vitamins/minerals. See here: http://www.sojos.com/dogfoodmix_info.html

By the way, their treats are really nice. The "Good Dog" treats are perfect for small dogs.

The Honest Kitchen makes dehydrated raw that is supposed to be used in addition to raw (or cooked) meat. It contains raw meat itself and can be used as a complete diet, although it would be very expensive. http://www.thehonestkitchen.com. Herschel really liked Embark and it made his coat beautiful. I'm probably going to try Thrive sometime soon.

 

[Tatum]

Thanks, thats what I thought, but it sure doesn't say that on the bag. I wish I hadn't bought it, but now that I have, I'll have to use it. I just got done with a bag of Honest Kitchen and thought it was pretty exspensive, but good stuff. I also bought a 2 lb bag of the grainless, it might be better, but again very exspensive.

I also feed Nature's Variety and that is a very good food, I just wanted to add variety and it seems as if i've goofed because I am not good at calculations of percentages. Thanks again! Tatum

 

[Tatum]

Nature's Variety frozen raw that is...big difference!

 

[irenafarm]

I really, really, really wanted to try Sojos because it just sounds so easy. I did Volhard for a while (homeade "cereal" meals combined with fresh meat) and it was a pain but my dogs thrived on it. Unfortunately their energy demands are so high that I just couldn't get enough raw meat in them to keep body and soul together.

So although my preference is for straight raw (prey model), I do feed carbs in the form of whole ground grains. I did Volhard for a while but it was so hard to keep up with for seven or eight dogs or more. I did Bil-Jac for a while and loved it for my dogs that aren't allergic to grain. That was when I was toying with the Sojos idea - but I couldn't justify the cost for a bag of what is essentially ground oats and corn with some value-added stuff I could easily do myself, cheaper.

I approached a local mill about putting together a similar product just for me, but they sold me on a kibble they made there with local products - even the meat meal they used came from local producers. The kibble is very similar to Bil-Jac but way, way cheaper and I've been reasonably happy with it. I do half of this and half raw meaty bones, with some other things like homeade stew, fish, and fresh eggs.

I'd sure love to go back to all-raw though. Nicer teeth and better coats on it for sure, though they are certainly better than most dogs I see fed with well, fill in the blank. (;

 

[Herschel]

I approached a local mill about putting together a similar product just for me, but they sold me on a kibble they made there with local products - even the meat meal they used came from local producers. The kibble is very similar to Bil-Jac but way, way cheaper and I've been reasonably happy with it.

Have you considered a high quality grain-free kibble?

Innova EVO
Nature's Variety Instinct
Solid Gold Barking at the Moon
Wellness Core
Timberwolf Organics Wild and Natural

 

[irenafarm]

We've used:

EVO (both the original as it first came out and RM)
Wild and Natural

And also Blackwood, a locally available food, and a couple of others I can't remember now. I've been through the gamut, trust me!

EVO RM is still in my "Ben" rotation. I'm on a really, really limited budget here so unfortunately I can't feed any of those others. I'd also love to try Origen.

Also, I've got a dog that a) believe it or not does best on corn as a carb source (yes, I was shocked when I figured that one out) and b) has bite problems so he needs a special-shaped kibble. Bil-Jac and the one I use now are both soft, pellet-shaped kibbles he can pick up easily.

Meet Cord (he's pleased to meet you):

And my other "problem dog" Ben, who is allergic to chicken (which eliminates most of the foods you mentioned above) and many other things. He eats the NB allergic formulas, and as I mentioned Innova EVO. My two non-working dogs also eat whatever Ben's eating.

Ben. He's also pleased to meet you.

As I mentioned, the working dogs require huge amounts of energy inputs that would literally eat us out of a home. We're talking the equivalents of four cups of EVO each, just for instance, plus raw meaty bones. The Maremmas eat six cups of EVO each - I was weighing their food when we used EVO!

The mill food is much denser in terms of calories plus of course it's a tenth the cost. When I'm feeding three "outside" dogs in training, plus two 100+ pound dogs that burn as many calories as the BCs, plus six BCs, plus Maggie and Zhi, cost does matter, unfortunately.

Again, it's not my preference - I'd be doing 100% raw preferencially - but it gets the job done and my dogs still have not been to the vet for any reason other than annual visits, including my 14 year old - except for Ben the problem child. But even Ben is nearly twelve, still is capable of rounding up sheep that are 200 yards away and working for an hour or so in 98 degree heat, and is still my "go-to" dog when tough jobs need doing. And when he goes in for anything, his overall health still amazes the vets.

I like to believe that all these healthy dogs are a not a coincidence.

Gus, a recent addition, is also pleased to meet you:

And my baby dog Ted is just pleased . . .in general . . .

 

[Tatum]

Well, I want to stay off Kibble. Dog are doing very well on the NV raw and theHonest Kitchen dehydrated. Does it come down to if you are feeding bones and meat that the calcium/phospherus levels are balanced?

Becca, i love your BC's, they are so cute!!! My dogs are small cockers so feeding raw to just the two of them is not an issue. I th ink I might just go pick up some more HK. I don't trust that I can trust that what i give them is balanced.
Hershal, thanks for the info, HK has grain, but not near as much as the Sojo's and they were doing just fine on both HK and NV. I would feed about 3 meals of each in a row, it worked for us. Anyways what you said helped and made sence. thank you both!

 

[irenafarm]

I think Honest Kitchen has a grain free. I have a friend who uses it and likes it. I tried it back when it only came in the grainy version - just samples - the puppers slarpped it up but can you imagine feeding it to twelve dogs?

I could probably rely less on El Cheapo food if I had more freezer space. But we rent and space is unfortunately at a premium. We've got room for a commercial upright and nothing else, sadly, which only holds about a third what my commercial chest freezer used to (RIP). I could put three sheep in that thing, plus a dozen ducks, a deer, a box of chicken backs, odds and ends of organ meats and whatnot, and people food too! Man, I miss that thing.

Er, anyway, what were we talking about? Yes, I pay attention to Ca/Ph balance if I am feeding a lot of muscle meat - boneless has way too little Ca - none usually, actually. Really boney parts like necks and tails and backs - especially "frames" of poultry - will be Ca-heavy and will not provide enough protein.

But if you can cut the Ca content of the food "as fed" in half and still fall within healthy tolerances, you can replace up to half the calories of your commercial product without adding calcium or bone. If I feed something boney, I just feed extra meat, usually the next day.

I'm terrible at math. I usually get all the data together and then run it by my hubby, who has a graduate degree in math. Then I can blame him if something goes wrong - ha ha! No, it's fine - it's truly difficult to screw this up if you are paying attention. Where people go wrong is just plunking down chunks of meat willy-nilly and the dogs start having heart trouble, or pieces that are too much bone and the kidneys start to fail.

 

[Tatum]

Well there you go, I still am not sure I get it. i need to take the time to research enough to understand. I don't tell too many people this, but when I originally began feeding raw, I did use Sojo's and just probably added meat, then I figured why buy a big bag of oatmeal when I can cook my own. So I did. It was in 2004. I even went to a holistic vet and had written down what I was feeding. He said it was fine, but that I should be feeding bones. I never did, but fet solid gold bonemeal instead, thinking that would be enough and would replace the bones. In December when I took my male in for his annual check and to have his teeth cleaned, vet had to remove 3 that were loose. I didn't think too much about it at the time but when I took my female in a few months after that she had somewhere around 11 roots pulles as some were molars. thats when they both went back on high quality kibble. Then I learned about the frozen raw and the freeze dried and decided that would be better than me just throwing things together.

I have swear I must have ADD and can't comprehend and understand things like I should. As I read it for a second time, I am starting to understand. Makes sence. Well now you understand anyways and I thank you so much for taking the time to go through t his with me..Did I say thank you??

WoW, 12 dogs...I actually want another cocker, but will wait 2 more years , by then my son will be out of school and my daughter will be a junior.