Mother cat abonding kittens?

Question
Hello,

i have a cat who is roughly a year and a half old who had her second batch of kittens roughly 4-5 weeks ago.  She was very good about attending to her kittens for them first few weeks but as of yesterday she suddenly seems to have lost interest in them.  She appeared lost when around them then she just just ignored them altogether until me and my mother forced her down to feed the babes.  She wasn't happy but she did make an attempt to clean a kitten or two that were nursing. We confined her and the kittens to a pet taxi in order to force her to feed the hungry babies for a few hours, again she wasn't happy, but it worked.

However as of today she is growling at her babies if I put one near her.

This is confusing to me because she was a WONDERFUL mother to her first batch and she was off to a good start for a while with these kittens as well.  I've read that mothers abandon kittens that they "sense" have something wrong but i would have assumed my cat would have abandoned them fairly recently and not have waited a few weeks if anything is wrong with them.  
Perhaps i should also note that my cat had her kittens in a cat-bed that was thrown outside due to a male cat urinating on it (the mother cats brother in this case).  Due to this it was fairly smelly.  I'm not sure if this could effect my momma cat but i felt i should probably mention it just in case.

ANY info, speculation, or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Answer
Rachael,

It sounds as if she is coming into heat again. They can come into heat as soon as 7-14 days after giving birth. I would think about getting her spayed soon.

Try introducing some food to the kittens, like some real baby food, chicken or beef. Try to get them eating and drinking as soon as you can, or you may have to bottle feed them because the mom may not take anymore interest in them if her mind is elsewhere.  

Cats move their kittens sometimes 2-3 times anyways so the catbed shouldn't make too much difference. Also make sure the kittens are in a private area. If people are around sometimes young mothers won't take care of their babies.

Tabbi