What Do Leeches Eat? A Detailed Explanation of the Feeding Habits of Leeches

Leeches are omnivorous animals, and their main way of life is sucking the blood or body fluids of animals. They often feed mainly on plankton, insects and molluscs in the water. Under artificial conditions, they are fed with various animal internal organs, cooked egg yolk, compound feed, plant residues, freshwater snails and shellfish, miscellaneous fish, earthworms and so on as bait.

1. With the growing development of the leech farming industry and the intensification of farming methods, the scientific and rational use of feed and breeding feed can not only meet the needs of leech growth and development, but also improve the leech's disease prevention and disease resistance. At present, the main foods for farmed leeches include plankton in the water, small insects, animal blood, earthworms, snails and so on.

2. Generally, the following three principles should be followed for food used in artificial leech farming: first, the food should be something leeches like to eat and that has comprehensive nutrition and can promote their growth and development; second, when put into the leech pond, it can live together with the leeches for a relatively long time without polluting the water quality; third, it should have abundant sources, a low price, be easy to cultivate artificially, and be able to be supplied in large quantities.

3. Although leeches like to eat many kinds of food, under artificial farming conditions, snails and earthworms are selected for farming as leech feed.

4. At present, in our leech farming process, because the area is relatively large, when choosing feed, we certainly have to consider the issue of quantity. Snails are our main choice, because the output of snails is relatively high, and they can be found in most parts of the country, and the price is relatively suitable.