Is taking your cat for a walk good for them or just good for TikTok?

Roo has her harness on and her owner Alana Kestle has her lead in hand - the pair are ready to go out for a walk.

Except Roo is a cat and she is far from the only puss heading out for walkies.

TikTok and Instagram have seen an explosion of adventure cat content over the past few years - pets perched on paddleboards, scaling mountains or trotting on beaches.

With more young people living in flats in cities, supervised outdoor time allows their cats to get outdoor enrichment without the risk of being run over, say owners.

Cat expert Emily Blackwell said, while she does not condemn the practice, she also does not recommend it - adding that it depends on the cat and owner to make it a success.

Cats Protection urged would-be owners to choose a cat that can "thrive within the environment and lifestyle you can offer rather than attempting to force the cat to adjust".

"I would say the majority of cat owners that are putting in the weeks and months of time to harness train, slowly get them used to the backpack and taking them out are good owners who are wanting to keep their cats safe," said Alana.

When Roo was first adopted by 22-year-old Alana and her partner, both from Cardiff, the little kitten was meant to be an indoor cat.

But then videos of cats being walked on leads started filling her social media feeds, so the couple decided to try it.

As a third-year veterinary student at the University of Surrey, Alana has seen the dangers free-roaming cats face, such as being run over, fights and disease.

The couple began by trying different harnesses and getting Roo used to it in the house before introducing a travel backpack Roo could use if she needed a safe space while out and about.

"It did take her quite a few months to start realising, 'no, this actually is safe'," but now she has "full-blown zoomies outside, tail up, chirping, running around on her lead," Alana said.

Some vets she knows have been "very much into it", while others have expressed concern.

Alana thinks cat walking has been more popular among young people because they are living in urban environments and see the dangers it poses to cats, but she did not agree when people "do it for social media and push their cats too far".

The trick is knowing your cat, their body language and when they have had enough, she added.

She is far from alone, in fact, there are more than 4,500 members on the UK Cat Walkers Facebook group.

Lucy Francom, 26, began training Bongo when she got him about four years ago because he followed her everywhere.

Lucy, who grew up in Llandudno, Conwy county, does not believe cats should be allowed outside alone, no matter where they live, but nor would she want them to stay indoors all day.

Instead, Bongo and her other cat Fifi are trained to paddleboard, kayak and walk with her.

But how do you train a cat?

Lucy said the trick was going at their pace and using a clicker that you click and give them a treat when they do the correct behaviour so the cat associates the action with a reward.

Bongo and Fifi have been trained to walk with Lucy without a lead so they will come back to her if she calls, but Lucy said it was concerning to see people on social media dragging their cats around and not training them correctly.

Candice Stapleton, whose family is Welsh, is a dog trainer and said training cats was fairly similar.

She has four felines but only Captain Crumpet walks with her and German shepherd/border collie cross Lexa May.

She does not believe every cat should be harnessed trained: "I decided walking isn't good for Chikondi because of his poorly hips. I've got two older cats and it wouldn't be right for them either."

One of the important things she has trained Captain Crumpet and Chikondi in is what to do if they feel threatened and she carries a rucksack as a mobile safe space.

She believes younger people are embracing cat walking because they see it on social media whereas older people "can be a little bit more set in 'dogs go for walks and cats don't'".

"I guess there's a lot of social media presence and people potentially might do it for the likes rather than what's right for the cat."

She said walking Captain Crumpet was a "real mood booster, I can't help but smile seeing his happy tail as he trots along".

Abby Mayers and her wife Melody, both 22, live in Cheshire and usually walk their cat Olive in Erddig, Wrexham and Llangollen, Denbighshire.

The couple have three cats, and while new kitten Robin is being harness trained, Ginny is not a fan, so stays at home.

"We started training [Olive] with a harness because we lived in a first floor flat with no garden and near a fairly busy road," she said.

Now they live in a house with a garden, they let Olive out unsupervised because she has so much energy and the couple work long hours.

"I did see the guidance [that harness training is bad] and it kind of worried me a bit because I was like, 'what if we're doing the wrong thing?' But if Olive and Robin didn't enjoy it then they wouldn't do it," Abby said.

"If you have cats then you'll know that cats don't do things they don't want to do.

"I know them well enough that I know when they are enjoying something and when they're not.

"If my cats were ever showing signs of distress, I wouldn't do it with them."

Emily Blackwell, senior lecturer in companion animal behaviour and welfare at Bristol Veterinary School said she would be "cautious about recommending it as a way of giving a cat extra stimulation" because "most cats would find going off familiar territory and being restrained really stressful".

She said training from a very young age would be critical if the owner was determined to do it and the cat should naturally be very confident and curious.

Blackwell said she has seen cats who have been habituated to harness wearing seemingly very happy to explore mountain ranges, but has also seen clearly unhappy cats being walked on busy streets with heavy traffic.

"It is something that can work, but that's not the norm," Blackwell said.

"I'm not condemning it entirely. I know that some people do this very responsibly and successfully.

"Allowing the cat to choose whether it goes, having somewhere with you where the cat that can hide if it wants to is really important."

She said it was essential for owners to recognise when a cat is stressed, with behaviours such as:

• Hesitating
• Looking around a lot in a hyper-vigilant way
• Lagging behind and needing to be pulled
• Having its ears down or cowering

Daniel Warren-Cummings, clinical animal behaviourist and central behaviour officer for Cats Protection, said: "Many younger cat owners are drawn to items which frequently compromise cat welfare and show little awareness of cats' needs such a leads and backpacks with bubble windows, often as a result of social media influence."

He said free-roaming was always preferable but if that was not possible, many cats were suited to small spaces and lack of outdoor access.

He recommended potential cat owners to choose a pet that would "thrive within the environment and lifestyle you can offer rather than attempting to force the cat to adjust".