A Little Over Paranoid

There's been another monster unleashed upon the world. 

Okay, not the world.
but at least my store. ^^;;

As you see. 
When selling animals to people to keep as pets....
You sometimes end up with the people that get either a) extremely paranoid and call the store often to ask questions. or b) end up obsessed and are in the store constantly trying to make things right and such. 

For the most part. The Monster Customers are often made out of customers who are getting into the fish hobby. Constantly trying to make the water EXACTLY right, trying to figure out why they're having issues with their fish, changing their mind on what size of tank, what filter type, what type of fish they want to keep in the tank, what sort of decorations to have, or they end up buying multiple tanks and just become super obsessed lol. 

In any case. They end up becoming quite the plague to us in the store.
Because suddenly you're ALWAYS seeing them, ALWAYS talking to them. ALWAYS having to try and either reassure them that things are fine, or help them along with their decision making process, or...yah other things along those lines.

The past couple of days we've been plagued by a newly unleashed monster. 

However, surprisingly it's not in fish that we're being plagued by.
No it was in the reptile section that this Monster Customer was unleashed. *shakes head*
The last time I remember a major Customer issue in this section was when the Turtle guy would call the store everyday or at least every other day with questions in regards to heat and bedding and tank size of the Tortoise his granddaughter had bought. 
And it wasn't like it was a different question everytime.
Often he'd call the store to ask the same questions again and again and again and you'd spend 20 minutes on the phone telling him the same answers to the questions he'd asked yesterday. 

In any case.

I wasn't the one to unleash this week's Monster Customer. 
It happened Saturday night after I had clocked out.

Where one of my coworkers had sold a Chinese Water Dragon to a customer. 

And Spooked the Customer pretty badly about keeping the poor creature alive apparently. *shakes head* 

I mean. Chinese Water Dragons aren't that difficult to maintain. You feed them, keep them warm enough, give them more humidity, and walla! Happy Lizard! 

The main 'issues' with them is that a) they get big. At 36 inches (3 feet long) when they're full grown, so they need to have space to get that big. and b) their tails can be quite whip like. So be careful to not get whipped by them. 

Otherwise, super docile, eat their food and the like.
They're just like other reptiles...only a little quicker on their feet than the more lazy bearded dragons and leopard geckos. lol

So the woman bought the Water Dragon on Saturday.
Apparently called the store on Sunday (I wasn't there but she told me she had) freaking out because her Chinese Water Dragon was so cold and dark and lethargic and she was terrified it was dying.

Which ....not sure on the dying part. But it was super freaking cold because the woman had misted the cage (cus they need a higher humidity) but had somehow accidentally turned off the Heat Bulb that you know...keeps the Water Dragon Warm, leaving on the UVB light on. (which just gives off light and no heat.)
SO NO WONDER HE WAS COLD AND LETHARGIC.
There was no Heat.

Which once the lady figured that out and turned on the light, the Water Dragon perked up and got his color back and ate food.
So all was well!!

Until the woman called yesterday. (Monday)
Wanting to know how something along the lines of how long she could leave the crickets in the cage for. 
Because she was going to be heading off to work and wanted to feed the Chinese Water Dragon before she left and she was going to be gone for like 9 hours. 
Which...we feed the crickets to our Water Dragons in the morning...and just leave them. *shakes head* So I reassured her that the Water Dragon would be fine if she fed it and then left for work. 
(And I got the whole Sunday story from her and offered other pieces of advice.)

She may have asked other questions about heating and such, but that was the gist of yesterday's conversation.

Today. She called again.
Wanting to know at what humidity she should be trying to keep the cage at. As she'd been told that it needed to be between 50%-80% humidity, but she wanted to know if 50% was better or if it was supposed to be at a different number. 
*exhales* 
It's not like reptiles are delicate creatures. I mean, yes they can be. But really they can be quite hardy as well. They don't need the temperature to be 84.3 degrees exactly and the humidity at 69.38% or else the creature will die!
No. They're fine. 
That's why there's a range. It doesn't need to be exactly anything the entire time. *shakes head* 

She was also like "I'm going to buy a humidifier so I don't have to keep spritzing the cage...I don't need to keep spraying the cage with water right? Will the humidifier keep it at exactly the right humidity? Can I control it? DO I need to keep spraying the cage if I have the humidifier? Will it make the cage too misty?! Will I be able to see my water dragon?!?" 

Basically...it was a lot of questions that I had no idea the answer to because honestly very few people think about it that much or want to know details that specific. *shakes head* 

After hanging up with her, I was like to my manager "I hope she doesn't call back again tomorrow."
Because I really hate having to say "I don't know" to people. I feel like I let them down when this happens, and I really prefer being able to give a lot of knowledge and not just...nothing. *exhales* 

Only....the customer called again a couple hours later.

Wanting to know if her water dragon would still poop if it hadn't eaten anything yesterday or today.
Because she found stool yesterday, but if the Water Dragon hadn't eaten...would it still poop? 
O.o 
Uh what?
Lady. I DON'T KNOW. I don't pay attention to that sort of thing! *shakes head*
She was like "I fed it 3 crickets yesterday and I could only find one today so"
"So it means the water dragon ate the other two." 
"Or did the crickets bury themselves in the dirt instead and I can't find them." 
And I was like "Crickets tend to stay on top of the dirt. So if you can't find them, he ate them." 
And she was like "That's what I thought." 
*exhales* 

Seriously. She's become too paranoid about the creature. 
Really. It's not that difficult of a pet to keep. 
She just needs to step back, breathe, and realize that the pet isn't made of fine china. *shakes head* 

*fingers crossed* that she doesn't call tomorrow....though at this point I wouldn't be surprised if she does... 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi