Best treats for overweight Ragdoll cats

A vet recommendation to go high-protein and low-carb for weight management is a really sensible approach — especially for a Ragdoll, which is a breed that can quietly put on weight without looking dramatically different until it's already a problem. Cats are notoriously fussy about treats, by the way — they're drawn to strong meat smells and usually reject anything sweet or grain-heavy, so the good news is that the treats most likely to work for your cat's weight are also the ones she's most likely to actually enjoy. Before I point you in a direction: is she getting treats mainly as a reward, for training, or just as a bit of daily enrichment? And has the vet flagged anything else — kidney function, joint issues — that might affect what she can have?

That's a kilo over, which is meaningful for a cat — roughly equivalent to a person carrying an extra 15kg around. The tricky thing with daily reward treats is that calories stack up fast, especially with standard treats that are often 60–70% carbohydrate filler. So the goal is something she finds genuinely rewarding but that's almost entirely protein, with very low carbs and minimal additives. How does she respond to strong-smelling fish or chicken flavours — does she go for both, or does she tend to prefer one?

Perfect — that makes this straightforward. I'd go with Thrive ProReward 100% Chicken Breast Freeze-Dried Cat Treats. They're made from a single ingredient — freeze-dried chicken breast, nothing else — so the protein content is extremely high and the carbohydrate content is essentially zero. Because they're freeze-dried rather than extruded or baked, the natural smell is preserved really well, which is exactly why cats respond to them so strongly. They're also very light, so you can give several pieces without it adding up to much calorically, which means she still gets that frequent reward feeling without the hidden calorie load. For a cat that's actively managing weight, single-ingredient freeze-dried is genuinely the best category to be in.

Thrive recommends up to 15 pieces per day, but for a cat on a weight management plan I'd keep it to around 8–10 and make sure her main meals are adjusted slightly to account for them — treats should ideally make up no more than 10% of daily calories. The pieces are small and light enough that 8–10 feels like a generous amount to her even though the caloric impact is minimal. It's also worth spacing them out through the day rather than giving them all at once, since that keeps the reward frequency high — which is what she's really responding to when she follows you around.

Two things to check immediately: the ingredient list and the crude ash content. On ingredients, anything with cereals, sugars, or derivatives listed in the first few ingredients is worth putting back — for a weight-managing cat especially. Crude ash above about 8% can be worth querying with your vet as it may indicate higher mineral content, which matters more if kidney issues ever come up later. With Thrive you don't need to worry about either — but it's a useful habit for anything you pick up in future. For now, single-ingredient treats are genuinely the easiest way to stay on the right side of all of it.