Best treats for Devon Rex play sessions

A Devon Rex using treats to drive play sessions — that's a smart setup, especially in a flat where you need to manufacture the exercise yourself. Cats are notoriously fussy about treats; they tend to go for strongly-scented, meat-based options and flat-out ignore anything sweet or grain-heavy. The best ones are high-protein and low in additives. Before I suggest anything: does your Devon Rex have any known food sensitivities or allergies, and are the treats purely motion-based rewards — tossed or hidden during play — or are they hand-fed between sessions too?

Perfect — so you need something small enough to toss accurately, light enough to skitter across a floor and keep her chasing, and irresistible enough that the scent alone kicks her into hunt mode. What does she tend to prefer — chicken, fish, something else? And has she turned her nose up at any treats you've tried before?

That tracks — supermarket treats are usually mostly cereal with a whisper of meat flavouring, and cats with any self-respect can tell the difference immediately. For what you're describing, I'd go with Thrive Premium 100% Chicken Cat Treats. They're freeze-dried pure chicken breast — nothing else in the ingredient list — so the smell hits hard the moment the bag opens. They're small and light, which means they toss and bounce well for scatter play, and because they're almost pure protein with no fillers, you can use quite a few in a session without worrying about her calorie load. A lot of owners with indoor-only cats use them exactly the way you're describing. They're widely available on Amazon UK and reasonably priced for the quality.

A rough guide is that treats shouldn't make up more than 10% of her daily calories. For an active 2-year-old Devon Rex — typically around 3–4kg — that's somewhere in the region of 180–200 kcal a day total, so treats should stay under about 20 kcal. Thrive chicken treats are very low calorie per piece, so you can comfortably use 10–15 in a session without it being a problem. If she's doing two or three active play sessions a day, just keep an eye on her main meal portions and trim slightly if needed.

Good luck — Devon Rexes are wired for this kind of game and she'll probably go completely feral for them in the best possible way. If she ever seems to plateau on enthusiasm, try hiding them in small cardboard tubes or inside a screwed-up piece of paper to add a bit of puzzle element. Keeps the novelty going in a small space.