In this manuscript we compare the interaction of alkyl (trimethyl aluminum) and alkyl amine (tetrakis dimethylamino titanium) precursors during thermal atomic layer deposition with III-V native oxides. For that purpose we deposit Al2O3 and TiO2, using H2O as the oxidizer, on GaAs(100) and InAs(100) native oxide surfaces. We find that there are distinct differences in the behavior of the two films. For the Al2O3 ALD very little native oxide removal happens after the first few ALD cycles while the interaction of the alkyl amine precursor for TiO2 and the native oxides continues well after the surface has been covered with 2 nm of TiO2. This difference is traced to the superior properties of Al2O3 as a diffusion barrier. Differences are also found in the behavior of the arsenic oxides of the InAs and GaAs substrates. The arsenic oxides from the InAs surface are found to mix more efficiently in the growing dielectric film than those from the GaAs surface. This difference is attributed to lower native oxide stability as well as an initial diffusion path formation by the indium oxides. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.