diff --git a/litellm/llms/custom_httpx/http_handler.py b/litellm/llms/custom_httpx/http_handler.py
index 52f30e31641..6cb281cc700 100644
--- a/litellm/llms/custom_httpx/http_handler.py
+++ b/litellm/llms/custom_httpx/http_handler.py
@@ -664,7 +664,9 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
         logging_obj: LiteLLMLoggingObject | None = None,
         files: RequestFiles | None = None,
         content: _RequestContent | None = None,
+        follow_redirects: bool | None = None,
     ):
+        _follow_redirects: Final = follow_redirects if follow_redirects is not None else USE_CLIENT_DEFAULT
         start_time: Final = time.time()
         try:
             if timeout is None:
@@ -684,7 +686,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                 files=files,
                 content=request_content,
             )
-            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, stream=stream)
+            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, stream=stream, follow_redirects=_follow_redirects)
             response.raise_for_status()
             return response
         except (httpx.RemoteProtocolError, httpx.ConnectError):
@@ -699,6 +701,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                     params=params,
                     headers=headers,
                     stream=stream,
+                    follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
                 )
             finally:
                 await new_client.aclose()
@@ -732,7 +735,9 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
         timeout: float | httpx.Timeout | None = None,
         stream: bool = False,
         content: _RequestContent | None = None,
+        follow_redirects: bool | None = None,
     ):
+        _follow_redirects: Final = follow_redirects if follow_redirects is not None else USE_CLIENT_DEFAULT
         try:
             if timeout is None:
                 timeout = self.timeout
@@ -750,7 +755,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                 timeout=timeout,
                 content=request_content,
             )
-            response: Final = await self.client.send(req)
+            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, follow_redirects=_follow_redirects)
             response.raise_for_status()
             return response
         except (httpx.RemoteProtocolError, httpx.ConnectError):
@@ -765,6 +770,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                     params=params,
                     headers=headers,
                     stream=stream,
+                    follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
                 )
             finally:
                 await new_client.aclose()
@@ -796,7 +802,9 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
         timeout: float | httpx.Timeout | None = None,
         stream: bool = False,
         content: _RequestContent | None = None,
+        follow_redirects: bool | None = None,
     ):
+        _follow_redirects: Final = follow_redirects if follow_redirects is not None else USE_CLIENT_DEFAULT
         try:
             if timeout is None:
                 timeout = self.timeout
@@ -814,7 +822,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                 timeout=timeout,
                 content=request_content,
             )
-            response: Final = await self.client.send(req)
+            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, follow_redirects=_follow_redirects)
             response.raise_for_status()
             return response
         except (httpx.RemoteProtocolError, httpx.ConnectError):
@@ -829,6 +837,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                     params=params,
                     headers=headers,
                     stream=stream,
+                    follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
                 )
             finally:
                 await new_client.aclose()
@@ -860,7 +869,9 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
         timeout: float | httpx.Timeout | None = None,
         stream: bool = False,
         content: _RequestContent | None = None,
+        follow_redirects: bool | None = None,
     ):
+        _follow_redirects: Final = follow_redirects if follow_redirects is not None else USE_CLIENT_DEFAULT
         try:
             if timeout is None:
                 timeout = self.timeout
@@ -878,7 +889,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                 timeout=timeout,
                 content=request_content,
             )
-            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, stream=stream)
+            response: Final = await self.client.send(req, stream=stream, follow_redirects=_follow_redirects)
             response.raise_for_status()
             return response
         except (httpx.RemoteProtocolError, httpx.ConnectError):
@@ -893,6 +904,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
                     params=params,
                     headers=headers,
                     stream=stream,
+                    follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
                 )
             finally:
                 await new_client.aclose()
@@ -911,12 +923,14 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
         headers: dict | None = None,
         stream: bool = False,
         content: _RequestContent | None = None,
+        follow_redirects: bool | None = None,
     ):
         """
         Making POST request for a single connection client.
 
         Used for retrying connection client errors.
         """
+        _follow_redirects: Final = follow_redirects if follow_redirects is not None else USE_CLIENT_DEFAULT
         # Prepare data/content parameters to prevent httpx DeprecationWarning (memory leak fix)
         request_data, request_content = _prepare_request_data_and_content(data, content)
 
@@ -929,7 +943,7 @@ class AsyncHTTPHandler:
             headers=headers,
             content=request_content,
         )
-        response: Final = await client.send(req, stream=stream)
+        response: Final = await client.send(req, stream=stream, follow_redirects=_follow_redirects)
         response.raise_for_status()
         return response
 
diff --git a/litellm/proxy/guardrails/guardrail_hooks/custom_code/primitives.py b/litellm/proxy/guardrails/guardrail_hooks/custom_code/primitives.py
index 1553487ee67..89eb79e4ce7 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/guardrails/guardrail_hooks/custom_code/primitives.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/guardrails/guardrail_hooks/custom_code/primitives.py
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ async def http_request(
         try:
             validated_url, host_header = validate_url(url)
             headers = {**(headers or {}), "Host": host_header}
-        except SSRFError as e:
+        except (SSRFError, ValueError) as e:
             verbose_proxy_logger.warning("Custom code http_request SSRF blocked: %s", e)
             return _http_error_response(f"Blocked: {e}")
 
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/guardrails/test_custom_code_security.py b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/guardrails/test_custom_code_security.py
index b6e7f3b7025..74c85dbc3e2 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/guardrails/test_custom_code_security.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/guardrails/test_custom_code_security.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import inspect
 import socket
 
 import httpx
@@ -226,6 +227,12 @@ def test_missing_apply_guardrail_raises():
 
 
 class _FakeAsyncClient:
+    """Mimics the REAL AsyncHTTPHandler method signatures.
+
+    If the primitives pass a kwarg the production handler does not accept,
+    these fakes raise TypeError exactly like production would.
+    """
+
     def __init__(self, response=None):
         self.response = response
         self.calls = []
@@ -236,20 +243,123 @@ class _FakeAsyncClient:
             raise self.response
         return self.response
 
-    async def get(self, **kwargs):
-        return await self._record(**kwargs)
+    async def get(
+        self,
+        url,
+        params=None,
+        headers=None,
+        follow_redirects=None,
+        timeout=None,
+    ):
+        return await self._record(
+            url=url,
+            params=params,
+            headers=headers,
+            follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
+            timeout=timeout,
+        )
 
-    async def post(self, **kwargs):
-        return await self._record(**kwargs)
+    async def post(
+        self,
+        url,
+        data=None,
+        json=None,
+        params=None,
+        headers=None,
+        timeout=None,
+        stream=False,
+        logging_obj=None,
+        files=None,
+        content=None,
+        follow_redirects=None,
+    ):
+        return await self._record(
+            url=url,
+            data=data,
+            json=json,
+            params=params,
+            headers=headers,
+            timeout=timeout,
+            follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
+        )
 
-    async def put(self, **kwargs):
-        return await self._record(**kwargs)
+    async def put(
+        self,
+        url,
+        data=None,
+        json=None,
+        params=None,
+        headers=None,
+        timeout=None,
+        stream=False,
+        content=None,
+        follow_redirects=None,
+    ):
+        return await self._record(
+            url=url,
+            data=data,
+            json=json,
+            params=params,
+            headers=headers,
+            timeout=timeout,
+            follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
+        )
 
-    async def delete(self, **kwargs):
-        return await self._record(**kwargs)
+    async def patch(
+        self,
+        url,
+        data=None,
+        json=None,
+        params=None,
+        headers=None,
+        timeout=None,
+        stream=False,
+        content=None,
+        follow_redirects=None,
+    ):
+        return await self._record(
+            url=url,
+            data=data,
+            json=json,
+            params=params,
+            headers=headers,
+            timeout=timeout,
+            follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
+        )
 
-    async def patch(self, **kwargs):
-        return await self._record(**kwargs)
+    async def delete(
+        self,
+        url,
+        data=None,
+        json=None,
+        params=None,
+        headers=None,
+        timeout=None,
+        stream=False,
+        content=None,
+        follow_redirects=None,
+    ):
+        return await self._record(
+            url=url,
+            data=data,
+            json=json,
+            params=params,
+            headers=headers,
+            timeout=timeout,
+            follow_redirects=follow_redirects,
+        )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("method", ["get", "post", "put", "patch", "delete"])
+def test_async_http_handler_accepts_follow_redirects(method):
+    from litellm.llms.custom_httpx.http_handler import AsyncHTTPHandler
+
+    params = inspect.signature(getattr(AsyncHTTPHandler, method)).parameters
+    assert "follow_redirects" in params, (
+        f"AsyncHTTPHandler.{method} must accept follow_redirects or the "
+        "guardrail HTTP primitives cannot disable redirects"
+    )
+    assert params["follow_redirects"].default is None
 
 
 def _ok_response(status_code=200):
@@ -276,6 +386,11 @@ def _public_dns(monkeypatch):
         "http://192.168.1.1/",
         "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/",
         "http://[::1]/",
+        # Malformed port: is_valid_url accepts it (scheme + netloc), but
+        # urlparse raises ValueError when validate_url reads parsed.port.
+        # Must surface as a structured error, not an escaped exception.
+        "http://example.com:99999/",
+        "http://example.com:notaport/",
     ],
 )
 async def test_http_primitives_block_internal_targets(url, monkeypatch):