The potential of native (un-purified) mucilage, extracted from the cladodes of Opuntia spp. to display gel-like behaviour, has been investigated. Native mucilage (NM) could prove beneficial as a functional food ingredient by providing favourable economic/food-production advantageous. Furthermore, mucilage in its native form is generally viewed as a by-product and is readily available. Elemental analysis of the freeze dried (FD) native mucilage (FD.NM) emphasises the high levels of calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and potassium (K+) content associated with the mucilage extracted from ‘Algerian’ and ‘Morado’ cultivars. Viscosity measurements at varying pH conditions was investigated at shear rates of 30 s-1 to 200 s-1, at a constant temperature (25˚C). The unaltered pH of all native mucilage solutions was found to be slightly acidic, with a pH 4.6 – 4.9 recorded. All native mucilage (NM) and reconstituted (R) freeze-dried native mucilage (R-FD.NM) solutions displayed typical non-Newtonian, pseudoplastic flow behaviour. Considering the flow behaviour index, (fitted to the Power law rheological model) NM and R-FD.NM solutions, for both ‘Algerian’ and ‘Morado’ cultivars, exhibited pseudoplastic or shear–thinning behaviour, as all values reported corresponded to a flow index of n < 1, regardless of the pH. The flow behaviour for R-FD.NM of both ‘Algerian’ and ‘Morado’ cultivars at increased pH 9 – 10 resulted in an increase in viscosity. Interestingly, at a shear rate of 30 s-1 under acidic pH conditions (pH 3 – 3.5), both NM and R-FD.NM showed increases in initial viscosity. Considering the Bingham rheological model, the dynamic yield stress results showed that reconstituted mucilage under acidic conditions (pH 3 – 3.5) resulted in increased values, indicative of increased tendencies of the solutions to display ‘weak-gel’ or ‘gel-like’ properties. It has been noted that varying levels of charged ions as well as pH can have consequential impact on application type and food quality.