Fresh versus meal?

i hear that meal is better than fresh, then i hear the opposite. what should the first ingredient be for the puppy im getting?
Answers:
sorry i had a short time to write that last answer, but now i can give you a better answer. you always want to use a holistic diet, with all these recalls lately its the only safe choice, and make sure the company makes their own food, like eagle pack or innova. meat meals the actual good meat portion of the animal, and its dehydrated, meaning everything that not needed, like fat and water, is gone, making it the real first ingredient with all the benefits. when you put fresh meals first, of course its going to weigh more with all the fat and water added in. but really when you take out the water and fat before it gets weighed in you end up with that fresh meat being the 7th or 8th ingredient. thats what i hate about chicken soup for the soul..they have three fresh meats first, but look at the next five ingredients.its yucky! fresh meat has only 30% real meat in it, 70% is water and fat...so when you dehydrate it and you end up with the meal still being first ingredient...you know youre getting a good product. also make sure to avoid corn, wheat, soy, rice gluten ( RPC), bha, bht, ehtoxyquin, dies, colors, etc.remember you want to get as nautral and healty as you can w/o going raw...raw diets are a pain in the butt, expenisive, and even if youre doing it right you need to waiste money on supplements.
eaglepack.com

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I like meal. Feeding a lot of dogs on a BARF(Bones And Raw Food) diet is a pain. Look for a good quality dry food. Your first ingredient should be meat. Ask your breeder or vet.

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Dog foods list ingredients by what there is the most of, by weight, in descending order. Fresh meat (be it chicken lamb, fish) has a high water content and a lot of that water is going to evaporat in the kibble-baking process; therefore there is less usable protein in the end result. Meal on the other hand alrady has the water removed.
I recommend Canidae all life stages. 3 of the first 5 ingredients are meat meals.
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_sta...

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Nutritionally dry food is much better, your dog probably wont agree and would prefer fresh, just like a kid would prefer candy over an apple. However as a pet owner it is your responsibility to feed your dog the best and most health choice. The other thing to be aware of is that yes dry food is better, but only high quality dry food. I personally would recommend science diet for puppies. When we first got our puppy he was malnurished and the vet gave us prescription science diet, which was pre-digested so all the nutrient went straight into his system. Within two weeks of that he had gained 6 lbs and was just underweight instead of near deaths door. Anyway we kept buying science diet, it is great for his digestion, and he isn't as farty as some labs. It is good for his skin and the dry food is also good for a dogs teeth as it works kind of like a toothbrush. Good luck finding the best dog food, it is good that you are concerned and researching the differences. Here is the science diet website, they have a lot of good info:

http://www.hillspet.com/zskin_2/index.js...

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Veterinary nutritionists do recommend that an animal protein source should be in the first 3 ingredients listed for commercial dog food. If you think about it, the dog’s diet must add up to be 100%. There are five nutrients to take into consideration here - protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins.

According to accredited veterinary nutritionists, the average adult neutered house dog only needs about 20% protein, 15% fat, and all the necessary vitamins and minerals can fit into 5% of the diet. So what makes up the remaining 60%?

It only makes sense that if the diet is formulated properly and the list ACCURATELY reflects the relative weight of the ingredients, low calorie carbohydrates should make up the balance of the diet.

Therefore, the list should have a grain as the first ingredient.

Rebecca Remillard, PhD, DVM, accredited veterinary nutritionist, and staff nutritionist at the Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston, MA, states, “If a diet has the proper protein to calorie ratio and is properly formulated for the average adult dog, the meat source would not be first in the list.”

Despite this, many self-proclaimed pet food experts will try to tell you that carbohydrates are nothing but junk. While there is no minimum dietary requirement for carbohydrates in pet foods, the body does have a minimum glucose requirement to supply energy for critical organs such as the brain. In addition, most cells use glucose as their primary fuel.