Dry cat food for weight control with no corn or soy?

I'm looking for some cat food recommendations. One of my cats, Shade, may have a food sensitivity; for some time, she has been throwing up undigested cat food, and my vet suggested doing an elimination diet before doing any major tests since she has no other symptoms. In switching between different brands of cat food, my tentative conclusion is that she is sensitive to either corn or soy (or maybe both). The latest food I have given her, Natural Balance Calamari Salmon and Duck, so far seems to agree with her, and when I compare all the foods I've tried with her, the only ingredients that are uniquely absent seems to be corn and soy. If it is a sensitivity, not sure if is is a sensitivity to one or both of those.

However, in the process of doing the elimination diet, I have switched from cheap cat foods to the higher quality brands -- problem is, she's gained a lot of weight (10 lbs to 12 lbs in about 4 months!).

Are there any good dry cat foods for weight control or weight loss that you guys would recommend that don't have corn and soy? I'd love to stick with what she's currently eating since it agrees with her so well and the other cats seem to like it, but I really need her to shed some weight first.

Is the Natural Balance Calamari, Salmonand Duck one of the wet food pouches? If so, these are quite high on the carb scale and could definitely be contributing to weight gain.

For dry foods, I feed Nature's Variety Instinct and their Pride by Instinct line of dry.

The most important thing to look at when selecting a dry food is high protein and low carb.

This explains how to calculate the carb content:
http://m.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=470

And, here is an online calculator that will calculate for you:
http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

CatPack said:

Is the Natural Balance Calamari, Salmonand Duck one of the wet food pouches? If so, these are quite high on the carb scale and could definitely be contributing to weight gain.
 

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It's dry kibble. Do you know if their dry kibble tends to be high in carbs as well?

Thank you for the calculators! I will definitely take a look at that.

I personally don't like weight control foods because I think they're worse quality than regular foods. Kibble is typically high in carbs, even good quality kibble, so it's easy for cats to eat too much and get chubby. The best thing to do is to slowly reduce the amount of food kitty is eating so she can lose weight. Look at how many calories are in 1 cup of food (on the bag), and figure out how many calories your cat needs per day to figure out how much to feed. It's VERY easy to over feed kibble. Most importantly, do not free feed. You also might consider feeding her some wet food. Wet food is lower in carbs and if you give her smaller meals multiple times throughout the day it'll prevent her from feeding too hungry even with the food reduction. It's also good for cats to have some wet food. You could look into feeding the same brand but in wet food, or Nature's Variety Limited Ingredients is also good for cats with allergies. 

I agree with missmimz! Diet kibble is often higher in carbs than regular foods--at the expense of protein, which is what cats really need--and that just leads to no weight loss. Or even more weight gain. We had this happen with our previous cat.

Her idea of trying some of the same company's wet food is great: with the moisture and (most likely, anyway) higher protein, your cat may feel more satiated. This helped with our previous cat: adding a small can of food a day is most likely what stabilized her weight. She, too, had food sensitivities (among other things) and we really didn't know much about how to feed cats then... I wish I'd known then that she probably would have been better off if we'd put her on only wet food, which is what our new cats' vet (a cat specialist this time around!) recommends for weight issues.

Good luck!

most all dry food is high in carbs, even the grain-free. wet food is far better and healthier for cats and much lower in carbs. i'd switch to wet if i wanted my cat to lose weight but i'd keep her on it to prevent diabetes, kidney disease etc...

even the cheapest wet food is supposed to be healthier than the best dry..

this is the best site for cat nutrition!

http://www.catinfo.org/