04/18/2026
What To Feed Your Dog - Meat Matters: Nutritionally Beneficial Meat Meals
Meat plays an important role in our pet’s bodies but not all protein sources are created equal. Your pet parent’s may have questions regarding TLC’s premium protein sources when considering what food to feed.
Ingredients, including lamb and chicken meals, are listed first in TLC Dog Food. So what is a meat meal? What are their nutritional benefits? Below we explain what a meat meal is and why we’ve chosen these quality protein sources for our food.
INGREDIENT HIGHLIGHT: WHAT IS A MEAT MEAL?
When you remove the moisture from fresh meat, you leave behind a high-quality, nutritionally beneficial ingredient called a meat meal. The process of removing the moisture from the fresh meat does not diminish the nutritional value. The chicken, lamb, and salmon meals used in TLC Pet Food contain 90% digestible protein, low ash, and valuable amino acids.
Meat meals are essentially meat ingredients minus moisture. Fresh meats contain approximately 70% water.
Meat meals have 4-5 times the nutrients found in the same quantity of fresh meat.
Meat meals are highly digestible and include low ash and valuable amino acids.
WHY MEAT MEALS?
In addition to the benefits noted above, the same quantity of meat meal has 4-5 x the nutrients found in the same weight of fresh meat. This is due to the difference in moisture. Meat meal is left with approximately 5% moisture content compared to fresh meat, 70% water. Weight matters because ingredients are listed in order and by weight. Dog food listing only fresh meat in their food must offset the weight of the water removed in cooking. Once food using only fresh meat has been cooked, the quantity of the actual meat will be significantly less than what’s listed. Therefore, the nutritional benefits from the meat diminished. This means that your pet would actually be receiving much of its protein from lower quality, plant-based sources, like potatoes or tapioca, versus high-quality sources like lamb and salmon meal found in TLC Whole Life Dog Food.
Using meat meals allow for a greater quantity to be included. The lamb, chicken, and salmon meals found in TLC Pet Food are considered the best and most nutritionally beneficial dog food ingredients available. This is the reason we choose to include them, in combination with fresh meat, in our Whole Life Dog Food.
QUALITY OF TLC’S MEAT MEALS
None of the fresh meat or meals in TLC include byproducts. There is no animal waste, like feathers, heads, feet, or entrails, and all of TLC’s meat meals include only the animal listed. For example, salmon meal = 100% salmon.
Premium quality pet food, made fresh and delivered free to your doorstep. Order TLC online today!