An animal-loving couple spend thousands of pounds a year looking after orphaned and injured bats inside their house, keeping up to 40 in an upstairs room at one time.

Kiri Green, 36, and Stewart Rowden, 43, take in at least 100 bats a year following calls for help from the public, mending their broken wings and bones in a dedicated 'hospital' before training them to fly again in their living room.

Some of the baby bats need feeding with puppy milk formula every two hours with a tiny syringe, while nine are so disabled they have to be looked after inside the couple’s five-bedroom terraced house in Bristol on a permanent basis.

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Kiri Green, 36, and Stewart Rowden, 43, take in at least 100 bats a year following calls for help from the public and feed them back to strength inside their house

After the injured bats have recovered in the bat hospital, they are taught to fly again in the couple's living room

Most of the animals are able to return to the wild after three months of care, which includes three weeks of hunting practice at a specialist facility run by another member of the local Avon Bat Group.

Ms Green told MailOnline: ‘We have a spare kitchen upstairs, which is the bat hospital, then we train them to fly in the front room, which is all secured with masking tape to stop them getting behind things.

‘Caring for bats is very labour intensive, they need feeding every two hours from when they are newborn up to two weeks old and this lasts five or ten minutes.

‘After about six weeks we wean them onto mealworms and then they go to a flight centre, learning to hunt for about three weeks, before being released back into the wild.

‘Bats usually give birth around mind-June through to early July, and we get lots of orphans, and plenty of others who have been caught out in bad weather or run into cats.’

The couple keep nine bats that were too disabled to be released back into the wild and are taken to schools for educational purposes under a programme licensed by Natural England.

Most of the animals are able to return to the wild after three months of care at the bat hospital, pictured

Ms Green told MailOnline: ‘We have a spare kitchen upstairs, which is the bat hospital, then we train them to fly in the front room, which is all secured with masking tape'

Freya, a young brown long-eared bat, recuperates in the bat hospital after being handed in by a member of the public

One of them, a pipistrelle called Brian, was rescued in 2013 but still has to be hand-fed twice a day due to developmental issues that means he still acts like a pup.

Several of the disabled bats – which recognise their human carers by sight – had their wings amputated due to infections.

The couple keep nine bats that were too disabled to be released back into the wild and are taken to schools for educational purposes

Ms Green said: ‘After undergoing so much hands-on treatment, these bats recognise me and have formed a bond.

‘At feeding time, some of them will come out of their roosting spots and ask for some food even though they are able to feed themselves.

‘The hand-reared bats especially like to play up with the people who come to the house for training handling bats for work or learning to rehabilitate them.’

The couple began volunteering at an animal rescue centre in Highbridge, 20 miles from Bristol, before starting to look after bats at home for the Bat Conservation Trust in 2011.

Ms Green says that she and her husband, who works at Natural Resources Wales, spend £3,010, on caring for bats each year, excluding fuel costs.

Some of this total is covered by donations to the Bat Conservation Trust.

The couple find the bats to be unobtrusive house guests, which do not merit their negative reputation.

Ms Green says that she and her husband, who works at Natural Resources Wales, spend £3,010, on caring for bats each year, including this one-day-old pipistelle called Jewel

If you find and injured bat, you can find advice from the Bat Conservation Trust by visiting their website or phoning 0345 1300 228. Pictured: A bundle of injured pipistrelles

‘Bats have always been something humans don’t come into contact with unless they are somewhere dark and scary like a cellar, so they are somewhat mysterious,’ Ms Green said.

‘After all, Batman used that because he turned into a bat to scare the baddies.

‘They are not scary at all though, but all have their own character, with some very cheeky and others greedy and grumpy.’

In Britain, it is a criminal offence to deliberately capture, kill or injure a bat or disturb a roost.

If you find and injured bat, you can find advice from the Bat Conservation Trust by visiting their website or phoning 0345 1300 228.