She's more greedy with wet food than dry food, but I'll have to consider the puzzle idea because it still has potential to be an option. She has four treat balls that we use periodicallly. I once bought a couple with the intention of it being for both cats, but she wouldn't let her sister have a one. I fought - and lost that battle. She does enjoy the treat balls. She's highly mastered so it's not as challenging as it used to be for her.

She's had anxiety issues for several years; I don't even remember exactly when it began. It was a few years ago that a vet mentioned Feliway and I did the plugin. I put it by the big condo that she sat on every day. When I put the plugin near the condo, she quit using the condo and even didn't stay in the living area much. And her issues didn't resolve either. Her vet was shocked when I told him. When I took the plugin out, not immediately, but she did eventually return to the condo.

Now at the risk of being funny, I've discovered a few youtube videos of cat calming music - there are some that work and some that don't. But that's only a temporary relief to stop her from overgrooming. As for the food greed, I've not found that calmable yet, but I do associate anxiety with that.

carolina said
I am a devotee of cat and dog calming music!

It's helped me (never mind my 6 cats and 5 dogs!!!) immensely. I've downloaded a few from youtube in the past and made sure I got decent mini speakers for the binaural beats. Fun fact: cats purr at a healing and calming frequency that helps them and all around them, even us. I frequently play their music quietly on a loop even through the night.

It's great your cat prefers wet food (kibble is very denatured through heat, oxidation, etc).

If you're OK with washing the puzzle toys and floor regularly, you could add pieces of cooked chicken diced small or even briefly soak kibble pieces in water from canned Sardines In Water. Canned sardines are in many respects better than canned tuna - sardines do not have the mercury levels and the little bones are good for approximating a natural 'raw' food diet in some respects.

I also position my cat food bowls in awkward places... because my dog eats their food... so much jumping and roaming is required by my cats. I also use very flat large children plates for my food obsessed cat with gasto issues. A bowl allows him to guzzle food, a flat plate with a sparse amount of food takes him longer to eat and lick clean.

Other people offer their cats a raw chicken wing to chomp on and play with for hours! That's quite messy and not practical for me.

Another option for you to try is homemade cat food following the raw and/or cooked balanced options. I had great results with one of my rescue cats health. I do think that their health can affect their emotional state, so I try to experiment as much as they'll let me....*sigh*.

Some links that may be of interest:

http://meowlife.....-cat-food/

https://tcfelin.....od-recipe/

http://www.catn.....cipes.html

https://www.fel....._or_Cooked

  

Thank you for this!