violent behavior towards littermaid

i have a male cat that is almost 1.5 yrs old and he has been using a littermaid for about 8 or 9 months....in the past 2 weeks he has become violent with it....everytime the littermaid kicks in to clean itself he runs over to it and swats at it and hits it really hard.... his tails poofs as well....i dont understand why all of sudden he is acting like this ....he is a very laided back and cool cat...anyone have any suggestions as to what is going on here?

p.s. he is fixed and an inside only cat

I would bet your cat got hurt, caught or snagged in the machine, got loose and is now angry at the predator that caught him. I would suggest that you stop using it for awhile, and go back to the old fashioned litter pan. If he is swatting this when it is running, maybe the next time it catches him, he won't be lucky enough to get free of it.

Poor thing! I can't imagine anything else that might trigger that behavior.