Systems, methods, and computer code products for monitoring the behavior, health, and/or characteristics of an animal are disclosed herein. In one implementation, the animal is positioned inside a waste container placed on a system that is adapted to determine, record and communicate over a network various animal health parameters These parameters can be processed to determine trends, statistics and changes of animal physiological functions. The results can be used to access animal health conditions and issue warnings alarms, messages, and other notifications to designated caretakers. These notifications may be displayed using various means such as computers and/or mobile devices. Data retrieval and review capability can provide improved understanding of an animal's health conditions arid facilitate early illness detection.