Cat yowls at 5am and is very clingy

[Boo2400]

I just adopted a 1 and a half year old British short hair. He is lovely, such a friendly boy. Loves cuddles and is always sitting with myself or my husband when we are at home. We both work, he's probably at home alone for around 5 hours because of our shifts. Sometimes less. Sometimes slightly more. I start maternity leave next week and we have a baby arriving in a couple of months so I want to try and get this one issue under control as I feel he will wake the baby up with his meowing.

Typically, throughout the day this isn't an issue. He doesn't "yowl" in the day. He can meow a little but this seems talkative. He's quite clingy and likes to follow us around to see what's going on and will come and sit with us on the sofa. He doesn't often go and seek his own space when we are home. Which is fine, but I also don't want him to have separation anxiety as this would only get worse with a new baby.

He is un neutered, I'm currently in the works of getting an appointment for him. I've read that the evening yowling (which sounds quite angry and causes him to pace the window) could be a mating call and that's what he is doing in the middle of the night as well. Is this likely to stop after we get him neutered?

He has biscuits left out all night, clean litter, lots of toys spread around which he does play with as well as I can sometimes hear his zoomies during the night. He has the option to come and sleep in the bed with us the door is open. And he still yells for a while at around 9pm and then wakes us up between 3- 6 am yelling. I ignore him and don't go downstairs to see what he's doing as I did this the first night we had him and he was literally just stood there howling. There was no apparent reason.

My second thought was separation anxiety because I've gone to bed but he has the option to follow me. He just stays downstairs and yells.
What can I do? Is neutering going to fix this? He has had a recent clean bill of health from the vet just before we adopted him so no other medical reasons. Will neutering also make him less clingy as I feel it's just stressful for him as much as is it's nice for us to have an affectionate cat

yep that would be a cat. Ignore you during the day and want a conversation at 4am

It should help. When you say you adopted him, was it from a rescue? What 'works' is there to getting him neutered? Have you booked the appointment yet? Assuming you're keeping him indoors, you don't want an entire male spraying in your house. .🤢

The cat is just catting! 23 years and counting of broken sleep and being woken up between 4am-5am every day courtesy of my furry little darlings!

Surely it’s not an “adoption” if he’s still
unneutered. Rescues would insist on an adult male being done before being placed in a new home. For good reason.

Indeed. A young cat happened upon me a while ago. Stray or dumped, not sure - no one claimed her and she wasn't microchipped. Resident cats did NOT appreciate the interloper, otherwise I'd have kept her, so I found a lovely adoptive home for her. But I paid to get her neutered first. There's no way I'd adopt out a cat without getting them fixed.

He was not adopted from a rescue place, he was adopted from another home who couldn't look after him anymore.

Yes it could be his hormones -get him castrated
It could be your hormones . Our old cat (spayed female) was very clingey when I was pregnant ( we'd had her about nine years by then , she' would;ve been 11 when DS was born) .When DS was here she looked with much non interest
Our current boy ( neutered) is over my DD like a cheap suit and can be a bit mouthy at times (attacks her slippers not shouty)

He could be seeing something interesting at 5am.
Foxes maybe ?

Cats are just naturally active at dawn. They don't sleep the same way we do.
He is just doing cat stuff.
Shut him away if you don't want to be disturbed. Mine get up and pad around but come back for cuddles and paw warming. Luckily without the need to narrate their adventures.

Our cats only do this if we’ve forgotten to put food out for the night, so it’s not inevitable.

You need to get him neutered asap though, and don’t let him out until he is.