They only eat their kittens if there has been a dead kitten around so it will taste their blood and get used to it, it then becomes a habit.
no of coarse not
Of course not.
only if a human touches the kittens right after they are born this is not entirelt true, for unknown reasons cats eat their kittens as well, it is said that cats can sence if their kittens are ill and will eat the sick ones
Sometimes a bad mother cat have been know to eat their young but this is rare.
Cats nurse kittens until the kittens are about four or five weeks old. At this age, kittens begin to wean and are able to eat soft kitten food. The mother cat's teets will dry and retract slightly. The only true way to tell if a cat is still nursing kittens is through observation.
I am not positive but I think that she either catches prey, or if she's a house cat, she let's her kittens eat kitten or cat food.
Some mother cats do this for many reasons, sometimes it's because the kittens are ill/deformed... or if someone has been handling the kittens and then the mother can smell their scent on them In both cases it is natural instinct. If the mother cat smells quite different scent in her kittens, she may think kill them for protection. If the kittens are ill/deformed, she also eats them before they die and bring diseases to the rest of kittens. Also dying kittens or dead kitten corpse marks the smell for the predators to notice where she lives.
A mean one ;( A cat will usually not eat her babies. If one is dead, she will eat that one, to avoid attracting predators and other toms who will come if they smell them. In the wild, the toms will kill and possibly eat the kittens if they are not his, so that the next kittens the queen has will be his, but otherwise, cats do not eat kittens.
If you touched them she may have not recognised them because of your scent.
Gather up your cat and the kittens and take her to the vet. Seconded. If you don't she will probably/certainly die, and then the kittens will, as the will have no mother to feed them.
Largely, to teach them how to hunt. A cat in the wild does eat insects, including crickets. As the kittens get bigger, you may find that your cat starts bringing in mice, voles, and later, rats for them to practice their hunting skills on.
I had Kittens that were killed same way. And it turned out to be Mother cat. If the kittens were either sick or there is a oder she doesnt know. She will eat them as food.