MLAARE -"Reptile Expert"

I had a guy call the store, concerned about the bearded dragon he'd bought on Saturday.
Apparently it wasn't eating.

O.o
Which is weird, because all our bearded dragons had been eating really well.
I figured it would be because they were probably over handling them.
As some animals will go off their food when they're over stressed in a new environment.
And constant handling by their new owners can do that.

But that wasn't the case for this one.
No, it quickly came up -as I asked what he was feeding the bearded dragon- as he said.
"I've been doing as the booklet in the kit said, we've been cutting up lettuce and other greens to give him."

Well.
There was the problem right there.
You see, the bearded dragons can eat veggies.
BUT
Not until they're more adult.

The bearded dragons we have, which are little babies, hardly ever basically never eat veggies.
Occasionally we'll get 1 out of 200 that will go after the veggie pellet food we put in their cages as well.
But that's an exception.

No.
The young bearded dragons are insectivores.
Meaning that they love to eat bugs. Like Crickets and Mealworms.

And I told him so.
That was why he wasn't eating.
Because he doesn't know the veggies are food. He likes going after live food.

He was frustrated that he wasn't told that upon purchase, that the "Reptile Expert" had basically told him that everything he needed was in the Bearded Dragon cage kit he bought.
Which, it does contain a pellet food....
But it's not the food they need.

Knowing that we've had a bunch of greenies recently hired,
I apologized for the confusion as he should have been told about the insects, and asked who he'd spoken to.
His response.
"I spoke to the Reptile Expert."
"Okay....what was their name?"
"I don't know. It was the Reptile Expert." He said empathetically. Like I should know exactly who that was.
"Alright, I'll let them know."

>.< Problem is....we don't have a "Reptile Expert."
Our "Expert" is whoever happens to be working in the department at the time.
Same with the "Fish Expert." or the "Bird Expert" or the "Hamster Expert."
We don't have anyone with that specific title.
And it's rather weird to expect there to be an expert...in a retail store...but sure...whatever...

And again, since I had so many greenies in the department then....it was a high likely hood that they talked to one of them...but why they would think that the young bearded dragons ate veggies was beyond me....O.o

I had no way of knowing who worked that Saturday (I was off)
But I came up with a creative way to figure out who gave the wrong information.
I went up to each of my coworkers and asked them simply "What do Bearded Dragons Eat?"
Unfortunately....
They all answered the correct answer. "Crickets and Mealworms."

So that didn't help, but then another person suggested checking out the forms we fill out, which I did, and I found the greenie coworker who sold the bearded dragon.

Turns out, it was a bit of a misunderstanding.
They had told them everything was in the Bearded Dragon Kit.
But, they'd also given them a separate pamphlet -a care guide- that stated that the bearded dragons would eat insects.
And they kinda assumed that the person would already know what they ate.

Yah....it's best to assume that a customer knows nothing rather than something.
It's good to repeat things and touch bases with everything.
Especially as something as important as what the creature eats.

So, lessoned learned. Always say what they eat. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi