When searching for nutritious low cost cat food, you need to consider the whole, rather than just the price of the food.

Nutritious means a good quality food with all the necessary nutrients to support natural health. When this is optimal, the health of your cat blossoms. Problems disappear or never emerge. Your veterinary bills drop. 

Everyone loves the idea of saving high expenditure, but you don't want it to come at a price of the health of your cat.

Most low cost cat food is nutrient poor. The food may be appetising to your cat, but that comes from a chemical flavouring, not from quality contents. And chemical flavouring can be harmful as they are toxic.

It's much healthier to allow your cat's natural instincts to approve, or not, of the food offered. This is how they have survived for so long in the wild. They know what they need to be strong and healthy.

We humans love to complicate things. However, most of life is quite simple.

I suggest that you look at the back of the packet of your cat's current food, in this exercise.

Check the list of ingredients. A typical list of most commercial cat food starts with carbohydrates and fades down to a heap of isolated nutrients.

Carbohydrates are cheap, but totally unsuitable for our carnivores.

Isolated nutrients never come from food. They are made in a laboratory as look alikes. Their origin is mostly petro chemicals.

The idea of adding in nutrients tends to make people feel good. However, you only need to add in nutrients when they are not present, or are very low, in the food. So it should raise alarm bells. 

Now consider a wild cat's diet.

As carnivores, they hunt small animals. They consume the whole prey - meat, blood, organs, bones. They may leave the fur or feathers, the head or tail and the entrails.

This is a really short list of ingredients, containing all  the nutrients necessary for a healthy cat.

Nothing is added. Nothing is taken away.

When I wrote my book on cat health, a few years ago, I compared the cost of feeding a cat on a natural diet compared with an average cost commercial cat food. They were comparable, partly because of the quantity.

Feeding a cat commercial cat food, being nutrient poor, needs a high quantity. Feeding a natural diet needs much less as it is nutrient rich.

However, it was more than that.

The enormous health benefits cats get from living on a natural diet is legendary. Consider what some holistic veterinarians have found in their clinics.

The interesting thing about their findings is that they are really happy to endorse them, even though that means a drop in income. Healthy cats don't need vets very often!

Cats are notoriously fussy eaters. This is because they prefer to kill their food and eat it immediately. Which means they prefer super fresh food. They do not like stale food.

This aspect is essential to consider.

Many cats dislike change. This means that changing their diet to a nutritious, natural diet may not be a walk in the park.

For some it is. Kittens and young cats are normally very quick to adapt. Older cats may grumble and make you feel guilty.

However, it is worth pursuing as the benefits to your cat's health and to your wallet speak dividends.

When you feed your cat real food, the one they evolved on, they need less than poor quality food. Nutrient dense food will satisfy them more quickly. Nutrient poor food will never satisfy them, so they will always be hungry.

In addition, the intestinal worms will never breed out of normal range, so they don't need regular worming. Although they may have a dumping period in the conversion stage.

Fleas will be a thing of the past as there is no toxin release through the skin.

A healthy cat doesn't cause you the anxiety, the sleepless nights, a poorly cat does.

A healthy cat invariably has a longer, happier life, all things considered.

When you look to purchase a nutritious low cost cat food, I encourage you to think outside the box. Consider ALL the costs you shell out for your cat over their lifetime.