Barney is now 7 months old and I am still contemplating the Barf diet, but for various reasons have not been able to do it yet, so he is still on a high quality complete. Briards are prone to bloat, being a deep chested breed and currently I am feeding him 3 times a day. This does restrict my day as I have to be home at lunchtime to feed him and cannot exercise him for an hour before or 2 hours after. Could I cut him down to 2 feeds a day now, morning and evening? If so, how do I go about it? Do I gradually increase the morning and evening feed, reducing the mid-day feed or just get straight to it? Any advice gratefully received.

Julia

I would divide his midday meal into three portions, with one portion added to his breakfast, one added to his evening meal and the other third at lunchtime.
:)

I agree with JG Julia, this is what's recommended by the breeders. But when/if you switch to BARF, it may be different.

I feed Murf 3/4 times a day on BARF, he has has lots of little bits and pieces, because of his breed and size, I take no chances and prefer to feed little but often. It suits him too.

I was talking to my breeder recently as you know, his opinion and 35 yrs experience/ research, given on bloat, albeit is not proven, Briards that tend to get stressed suffer far more incidences of bloat than those who don't. So keeping stress to an absolute minimum where possible is vital :)