Feeding Medicinal Leeches

[agep4]

So I own 5 medicinal leeches in total now, 3 I acquired from my university and I am confident in feeding them as I know they haven’t ever been fed on anybody else’s blood, however I also acquired 2 others through eBay. They were sold as fishing bait and I have been told in the past and also read on medicinal leech sales pages that often leeches that are rejected from the medicinal trade are sold as fishing bait. Since these have possibly been rejected I do not feel confident in feeding these 2 off of myself in fear of them potentially carrying harmful bacteria’s that could effect my own health, I was wondering if anybody knew if this was a risk or if I am being paranoid and of it is a risk is there a way I can feed them without using my own blood? I know that medicinal leeches naturally would feed off of amphibians however due to laws where I live this is not possible for me to do, my local butcher says he can’t sell me blood so I can’t make up “blood condoms” either for them. Iv heard that fresh liver can make up a good source but I don’t know how true this is? Does anybody else keep them on here and if so does anyone else use any alternate food sources?

 

[Ajohnson5263]

i know little about this. however, if you have an Instagram account, i would visit @ariawesomeness. he has succesfully kept exotic leeches for a while now and can answer most any questions if you dm him.