Hounds & Gatos - what's up with the THREE gums?

H&G seems to be a favored canned food on this forum, but what about the xanthan, guar and cassia gums listed in the ingredients list? From my neophyte observation most canned foods contain at least one "gum" as a thickener but not three. Any insight here?

I agree I really like this food and my cats do too but I'm concerned by the amount of gum thickeners. Sorry I have nothing to add but I share your concern. The only thing I can add would be feed multiple types of food to avoid having too much thickeners. For instance, nature's variety instinct doesn't seem to have any unnecessary thickeners. But I'm not sure I can justify the price since my cats leave so much of it behind and I have to throw it away.

The irony of all those thickeners is that H&G is like a brick loaf. I have to cut it down with so much water to get it to the (my) preferred consistency. And NV Instinct contains a "cleansing thickener" (my sarcasm for something called montmorillonite clay). I guess you have to pick your poison.

There is no perfect canned food.  I do think they go a little overboard with the gums but they don't use carrageenan, all of the gums they use are preferable.  Montmorillonite clay has been used by people who are into natural holistic nutrition for a long time.  It is thought of as a healing clay the theory being that it absorbs toxins in the digestive system.  I like the Nature's Variety Instinct food, I just don't care for the price tag.  I feed it occasionally but I can feed the Hounds and Gatos more often.

My cat hasn't liked the two kinds of H&G we've tried much.  I gave up on the chicken and it's obvious that the Lamb, Chicken & Salmon isn't a favorite.  OTOH, she inhaled just about every trial kind of NVI I picked up at Petco. I'm not sure but I think perhaps the duck and venison weren't quite as favorite; she even ate those peas.

I've bit the bullet and ordered single cans of H&G flavors because, like you, I don't like the price of NVI. Doesn't H&G turn into soup if you add water?  It seems kind of soupy anyway after I rewarm it.  I added a bit too much water when I reheated her FF one day and she didn't seem to like that (she eventually ate it but not with her usual efficiency).

I know this is an old thread, but it appears that the Rabbit variety has no gums in it? http://houndgatos.com/rabbit-catfood.aspx

I am going to add this into the boys food rotation.