This is actually a key period in a kitten's life, extending between two to seven weeks, when the young cat is very susceptible to external influences in its environment.
If deprived of regular human contact through this period, a cat will grow up being rather shy and reserved with people.

It is considered to be especially important in the case of Bengal kittens, because of their recent wild cat ancestry, as this breed is derived from crossings between domestic cats and the Asian leopard cat.




Although cats have been domesticated for many thousands of generations, they can soon regain their instinctive fear of people. This is why it is exceedingly difficult to tame down feral kittens born to domestic cats that have reverted to living wild, since they will have had no regular human contact early in life.

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