Cat meowing at night before litter use

Posy

Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar..

My cat (only cat in the house) has fine litter box habits. He's age eleven, neutered, well behaved.. But nearly every night for the last few months or so (3-4am) he uses his litter box, which is in the closet under the stairs (the door is always open for him!) and meows constantly, generally before he actually goes in to use it. He'll meow for a couple of minutes (louder than normal) then just go in and pee. He's had veterinary check ups and he's fine physically. I've checked on him at night when he does this and he seems pretty indifferent. He just looks at me then goes into his 'litter house.'
He's in good form and never meows before using his litter in the day. (although seems to prefer not using his litter if the house is empty, he'll usually -but not always- wait for someone to come home.. not sure if this is related as he's not home alone much at all.) There haven't been any changes to his situation, litter brand, box etc are all the same as they were. I'm not too bothered by this as it's not medical and everything else with him is grand so I'm not looking for a solution as such, just a possible cause! Could it be related to behaviour in the wild?!
Any probable reasons would be appreciated! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

The Sweeper

If you've definitely had him checked out and it isn't a urinary tract infection (in which case there'd be yowling while he pees instead of just miaowing beforehand), then sometimes cats are just cats.

My lot have high maintenance and low maintenance days. Some days they're quiet all day. Others one of them will be high maintenance - miaowmiaow, come and sit with me while I eat, or miaowmiaow, come and sit here in the kitchen with me near the fire, or miaowmiaow, stop using your laptop and pay me some attention.

There's also miaowmiaow, I want food but I don't want that food; miaowmiaow I want to use the litter box but it's not clean enough; miaowmiaowMIAOW, I want to use the litter box but one of the other cats got there first, and finally, miaowmiaowmiaowmiaow it's 5.45am and I wanted to wake you before your alarm goes off at 6am so I can climb under the duvet for 15 minutes.

MsFifers

Yes - could just be that "I'm going to be odd now" thing that cats do!

I notice my tom sometimes seems to get all riled up before he does his business - tearing around from one litter tray to another, frantic digging like he has to burrow to China, then will finally get it all to acceptable standards and go.

Though - if you hadn't said you had already done so, I would be telling you to bring him to the vet as the meowing before peeing and the fact that he sometimes holds it would be indications of a UTI or kidney problem.

Garth

If you haven't had him to a vet about this, take him now. It only takes a matter of a couple days for a blockage to kill a male cat.

Posy

Garth wrote: »

If you haven't had him to a vet about this, take him now. It only takes a matter of a couple days for a blockage to kill a male cat.

He's had health problems before and as a result gets regular check ups. He's been to the vet a couple of times since this started and everything is fine urinary tract wise.

Lady Lainy

my cat does the something, she's one year old. she's comes and goes as she likes but we try to keep her in at night because she likes to bring in mice through the bathroom window at night.

but back to point. she likes to meow and gets fussy when she has to use her tray, she hates it. she meows because she would prefer to go pee outside.