Sorry if you think these are gross disgusting images or whatever but I did eventually give up feeding store bought pork blood to pet leeches because the bite is completely and utterly painless anyway and they don't carry diseases. The only risk is bacterial infection but that's rare and I just put a band-aid on the bite with antibiotic. I've done it off and on for six years but now it's the only way I feed them because I know it's safe for them, plus, they go six months to a year between eating.
These photos are all the same leech after feeding for 20 minutes, and that is the same jar in the last two comparisons; they genuinely stretch out that much while they eat. Now over the next couple of days it will actually molt, shedding its skin in one piece, and get larger permanently.
This species is Hirudinaria manillenses, the "Asian Buffalo leech," the second largest blood-drinking leech and the largest of the "jawed" leeches. The very largest blood drinking leech is a "proboscis leech" and I would not want to raise one of those this way because this is how a jawed leech (like mine) feeds:
A TINY surface bite, by tiny little jaws at the center of the sucker
But this is how a "proboscis leech" feeds:
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I was actually fairly squeamish and afraid of bleeding before I got leeches, but I still hate needles. Getting blood drawn at the doctor is still a hundred times more noticeable than a giant jawed leech bite. I think a giant proboscis leech bite is probably worse than that, the proboscis is all covered in microscopic barbs I do believe.
This is what the proboscis leech looks like on a guy:
I forget what that arrow is pointing to, possibly one of the pores used in mating?
If you haven't seen it here's a little video I took of a baby manillensis swimming around in one of my huge jars:
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