FYI: Pebble eating axie bought from pet shop

My husband and I bought this little guy (Pikachu) from Pet Barn Kogarah Sydney NSW. We looked all day for the perfect axie as in Sydney it is hard to find healthy axies from pet stores. After seeing this axie we both thought he was healthy.
After having him for a couple of days i noticed in the tank that he did a big big poop. On closer inspection i saw that the so called poop wasn't poop at all... it was pebbles.
I scooped them out of the tank and washed them down to make sure.
My husband called the store to inform them on the situation and they should change their substrate to sand or bare bottom. They told him that they cannot change the substrate because the head office told them not too... Which absolutely puzzles me.
I felt this post will warn people about the importance on the substrate you put at the bottom of your axie's tank.
Although this situation has really annoyed me... I hope there is no more pebbles left in Pikachu.

I have attached a picture of the pebbles and another picture of Pikachu in the pet store tank,

Pikachu is doing well, eating well and acting normal with his tank mate Toothless :happy:

Poor Pikachu - great name!
I'm glad he's passed them. I'd be tempted to contact the head office and send the pictures of the gravel he passed. There's also plenty of other threads on here to support how bad gravel can be for them. I'm happy he's gone to a loving home.

I would definitely write to head office and enclose photos to back up your evidence. Ask them to seriously reconsider how they house their axies.

Pikachu has you now though and hopefully a long and happy life ahead of him / her. :happy:

Well at least you know what to do with him! You'll probably find pebbles for weeks - if not months - to come. I've has mine 3 months and I'm still finding pebbles....

Thank you for the reply!
He is doing very well and he hasn't passed anymore pebbles since he passed these ones.
I went back to the pet barn and checked out the tank that they have the lotls in. Since we phoned them they have placed bigger pebbles (ones that they wouldn't be able to swallow) on top of the smaller pebbles. Which makes me happy! No more eating pebbles for future axies at that store.