How Much Blood Do Bloodsucking Medical Leaches Suck?
hi guys and here we are back again for another video about leeches.
My name is Tsetsi.
I welcome you in my channel from sunny London.
And I am here to talk to you today about the different sizes of leeches.
I get many many questions and Leeches.com also get questions about small leeches, large leeches and what they all about.
And So I am here to show you and to show you and to the differences mainly and to talk you about the different functions of the different sizes of leeches.
So I’ve separated two different aquariums and two different sizes and here we have an aquarium with very tiny small size leeches only and there is one traveling out and trying to escape.
So this is how small they are.
All right on the other hand I have an aquarium full of only large leeches.
There is some medium once inside as well.
And lets get started and take out a large leech and show you how is compare to a small.
So As you can see this is a large boy here.
So this is a big large boy.
This one is a medium
You see the difference.
I am going to put these two back.
So these are all medium and large sizes.
Now let me show you how they compare to a small leech.
Ok so this is what a small leech looks like in compare sent to a big boy.
Now let me explain to you about a small leeches.
They can be called baby leeches as well, depending on the size for example this here is a baby and this little baby basically, ow its a hungry baby too.
So its trying to constantly bite.
But these little babies they need to be fed once a month to once every three months.
They are also called again small leeches and they can be called cosmetic leeches.
Altho this size here is very very tiny.
Its too small to be called a small leech .
So I’ve got a larger specimens here.
And this is what I would call small leech.
Lets give it some time.
So this one as you can see is a tiny bit larger than this one and this one probably can pierce the skin independently and suck where is this little baby there might not able to pierce the skin.
So its bit smaller than the other one.
And when they scratch out you can tell the difference.
So this is much thiner this is much thicker.
So this is a small leech the other one is a baby.
And this boy here if you can stretch him out you will see how large he is.
This is Hirudo Medicinalis Medical leech of a large or jumbo size.
Lets compare to regular medium size you see.
This is a medium again this is a medium large jumbo, small and baby.
Small leeches as I mentioned previously they are so young .
They have only a few months behind their back.
So they were born a few months ago and basically they don’t have much experience when they comes to sucking blood and piercing the skin.
They also are not able to establish good a good enough channel to inject hirudin and to start sucking blood from its host.
And therefore the small leech is used only for cosmetic purposes and its also used for places in the body that have are delicate.
So for example let me show you what places we would use the small leech on.
Ok and we have to move very quickly with the leeches other way they start biting.
Ok so right here I have delicate aria in my skin right on the back of my arm this is quite delicate.
It will leave a mark well not a mark but a bruce usually back here.
Also the inner arms or other delicate aria and here the veins are another delicate aria right here on the veins also.
As well as the face anywhere on the face.
Small or a baby or cosmetic leech can be placed in order to in order to do cosmetic work.
Its gonna take a while to it to pierce the skin and to find a place to suck from but afterwords it wound leave a mark.
ITs and its a very sort of delicate therapy to use these small leeches.
Been that they are so inexperienced often time you have to prick the skin before hand to get this little baby to suck.
And I am gonna put a few little babies on my hand to demonstrate to you how small they actually are and as you can see they are tiny in compare sent to my fingernail they are sort of like if they are bunch up together they would be my finger nail size.
So here we have tree four five six seven eight.
Eight little leeches on this hand you know this is what they look like.
Again these are babies and not even small.
Smaller smaller size leeches are bit just a bit larger than these.
So these are grown up babies.
Now I’ll put eight big boys in my hand so you can see the difference.
One two three four five six seven eight.
Oh immediately start to bite.
Oh I have to transfer them back right away because as I said they will bite.
Now This big boy here he is probably as a post to the tiny little leech which is about two three months old this baby is two three months old this big boy could be somewhere around a year.
So the large leeches are right around the year to year and half.
The medium size leeches are probably a year old and they are some that of course are six months old they would be again a medium size leech.
So this large jumbo leech is a year year and six months.
And this is very experienced boy.
Anywhere I place this guy on my skin anywhere he is going to he is not going to have difficult time finding a spot.
He is experienced he’s done this allot he’s been fed at the leech farm with certified beef blood and he is he is very well aware of smell of blood and of how to establish very nice bite with a good channel for hirudin and with excellent bloodletting.
So if this big boy who is about a year old if he sucks about ten milliliters blood the little guys are not even able to suck three four milliliters.
So you see the difference - ten , three , four.
About the same is their age.
So if he lived twelve months he might be able to suck you know twelve milliliters and this guy is only three months old.
He will take in three milliliters.
So you are getting a much larger value for your money when you buy a large leech because the twelve milliliters thats gonna be worth same as two or three babies.
And some people ask me how to feed babies?
The way to feed them is simply by placing them on your skin and having them bite you if they are large enough to pierce your skin.
Now most babies are not large enough.
These are but there is some they are even tinier than these and they wouldn’t be able to bite you.
So what you would do than is to take a big boy.
You will take this big boy.
You will put him on your skin.
You will have him bite you first
Haha oh great.
Oh Jesus.
I didn’t meat to do that.
Yea so I’ll have him bite me first and then put the baby on the same spot where he bite me.
That way they establish a nice channel for the little babies to suck from.
And the babies will be fed about once every like I said three months one month.
Depending on when its gonna be hungry again.
You gonna keep trying the baby until it sucks again.
Some people feed them once a month like I said and when they get bigger and they start feeding only once every three months then once every six months and then once a month every year.
These big boys can can easily live up to a year without being fed.
So all they do is just lounge around and it the spring time they will start mating.
So you will place two of these big boys into an aquarium together.
And I’ve done a video on how to multiply your leeches how to breed them.
Be sure to check out my other videos.
And be sure to watch all of them to find that information about keeping raising leeches taking care of them, what to do with your pregnant leeches and so on and so for.
I hope this was educational let me know if you have any questions but in summary just to recap the large leeches are much more experienced and much more like leeches suck greater amounts of blood quantity than the babyes.
The babies all they do is just they just prick a little bit, the suck a little bit they fall off in just a few minutes.
Maybe about five to ten minutes they will fell off.
The large leeches they will suck twenty to thirty to forty five minutes.
They will take in a large amount of blood and they will also be very very much more injecting in hirudin and you will feel up their leech goodness much more that with the babies.
If you have any other questions let me know in a coments bellow.
If I am not sure of the answer I will research it for you and I will find out and get back to you in detail.
Some people contact me privately.
I am not able to respond privately.
Because there is so many people emailing me.
I will do answer publicly to like everyone know the same answer so that can everyone learn and I don’t get the same question over and over.
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And thanks again for watching.
If you have any needs for leeches or leech supplies visit Leeches.com to buy everything that you need to get started on your therapy or on your way to raise pet leeches on home or breathing them.
And from me Tsetsi from sunny London good bye for now and I see you again next week Bye