Hello,
I’ve been a fan of this site since I brought Milton home a year ago, and I’m writing for the first time because this is new territory and I don’t know what to do next.

I’ve had Milton for over a year. We are pretty close, as long as I don’t pick him up. He’s very sassy but generally friend and really brings on the charm when new people come to visit! Twice other animals have visited (a cat first, then recently an over excited puppy) and he seemed more curious than stressed.

Today I brought home a female rabbit from the shelter. I put her in another room so we could get to know each other and she could relax. During Milton’s playtime I let him check her out (she was in the cage) and for a second they were just smelling each other and then he lunged and they both kind of reared up. I chased Milton out and closed the door. And now Milton is extremely aggressive towards me. He lunged at me numerous times to where I became genuinely afraid of him and had to herd him back to his cage with a notebook. I have never seen him behave like this. He was determined to get at me!

I read online that one good first step is to have their cages near each other, so I’ve done that. They cannot reach one another but they can see one another. The new rabbit is fairly calm although her ears are up and alert. She was the first to resume eating and grooming. Milton stared, transfixed, for over an hour. He made mad dashes around the cage and glared at me and sat rigidly by the door with both ears trained on the other cage. He just barely had a nibble of hay from his letterbox as I write this.

I would like advice about bonding but I also need advice about how to trust Milton again. I was terrified and while he was stressed he really wanted pets from me but I couldn’t bring myself to do it…I was worried he was trying to trick me into reaching in so he could rip my hand off!

Thank you!