As most of you know we have recently moved into a cottage in the Great Orme Country Park in Llandudno. You may guess from the description that there is plenty of grass, trees, shrubs etc - in fact an ideal place for a cat to live!

We had decided that, once we were settled we would get ourselves a cat, but fate took over and last week a stray cat decided to adopt us! I'm told by my sister that it is very lucky if a cat adopts you so let's hope that's the case!

Anyway we organised a trip to the vet to get him checked over and make sure that all was well as he had been living rough for a while and of course we needed to get food for him.

I have heard friends say that their cats turn their noses up at cheap cat food but I decided that, if we started with the cheap cat food (which I am sure is pretty much the same as the expensive stuff really) he would hopefully take to that and we would be able to continue with it.

It was with this in mind that we visited Asda to find out what sort of cat food they had - it isn't the sort of thing you really notice when you don't have a cat is it?

The Asda own brand range is called Tiger and is available in tins, trays and pouches. We purchased a couple of pouches and a couple of trays as they were both in 100g individual portions. I didn't want to have to give him half a tin and keep the other half in the fridge until the next meal as I don't like the smell of cat food.

We also purchased a packet of Tiger dry mix as well which I shall review at a later date.

We tried both the trays and the pouches and Mew (as we have christened the cat) was very happy with both so we have decided to stick to the pouches for reasons which I shall explain later.

The pouches are available individually for 19p each, in packs of 12 for £2.07 (17.25p each) or packs of 40 for £6.48 (16.2p each). We started with a couple of individual pouches and when we found out how much Mew enjoyed them we bought a pack of 40.

The flavours available are beef & liver in gravy, rabbit & game in gravy, chicken & turkey in jelly and salmon & trout in jelly and there are ten pouches of each flavour in the box of 40. Notice that these are what I would call normal flavours for cat food rather than flavours designed to appeal to us humans! I saw one brand that offered salmon and dill for example. Now in the wild can you imagine a cat catching a salmon and then thinking I must find some dill? I think not!

Anyway back to the review - so we have a selection of sensible flavours at a good price.

To use the pouches is simplicity itself. You just rip open the top and squeeze the contents into the cat's bowl. We mix in a bit of the dry food as well. This is where the reason for me preferring the pouches comes in. I find the extraction of the cat food and disposal of the pouch in the bin very easy, whereas the tray needs to be opened, the contents scooped out and then the tray needs to be washed for recycling (otherwise the recycling box will smell awful).

The first time we offered the food to Mew he gave his approval straight away! He wolfed down the lot. Now I know he had been living rough prior to him adopting us but even so he really seemed to enjoy the food.

We have given him the same food each time we have fed him for about a week now and each time he really enjoys it.

The other thing we have noticed which may or may not be linked to the food is that, when he arrived his coat was in poor condition - it seemed to be coated with something, leaving your hands feeling almost sticky when you stroked him but now his coat is in much better condition. As I say that might just be to do with him changing his lifestyle from rough to being looked after but it may have something to do with his diet.

A typical analysis of a pouch is as follows:
Protein 9.0%
Oils and fats 5.0%
Fibre 1.0%
Ash 1.0%
Moisture 82.0%
It also contains Vitamin A. Vitamin D3, Vitamin E and Copper as copper sulphate.

It is recommended that you give your cat four of the pouches each day but Mew seems quite happy with just three. When we gave him four we found he was leaving some so it was getting wasted. It does actually say on the box in which the pouches came that cats regulate their food intake and will seldom overeat.

The food must be given at room temperature and a supply of drinking water must also be made available to your cat.

The use by date on the pouches that we bought at the weekend is April 2010 so they don't need to be used straight away, although they will be finished long before the use by date.

So all in all we are very happy with Tiger pouches - and at 16.2p per pouch and Mew eating 3 pouches per day that adds up to about 50p per day to feed him including a bit of the dry mix.

There we have it - we are happy, Mew is happy so what more do we want?

By the way I do realise that this product is listed within the section 'tinned cat food' but since the singles are only available in either pouches or trays and that on Ciao there are only sections for either tins or dry cat food I am assuming this is the right place to post this review.

This review has also been posted on Dooyoo.