ANSWER: No, you do not. If you want to do controlled breeding and skip the part of the game where you search for genetics in your more common Meeroos genetics, then you have buying as an option. Most people are seduced by what they see, and since common Meeroos have buried, recessive genetics, they deem them often, falsely, worthless.

One of my most memorable encounters was with a woman who wrote me with a complaint, directly in an instant message. She had purchased a Painted Nile Meeroo only to come home and find that her common Meeroos had given birth to one. She wanted me to give her the money pack she paid for the Nile she purchased on the secondary market.

She believed that she had to introduce the Painted Nile genetics into her breeding to have it be present - only because the one she bought had genetics she could see.

Buying genetics is how some people choose to play, rather than exploring and discovering the genetics their own meeroos harbor. The concept that you have to purchase rare Meeroos in order to get rare Meeroos is a myth. It may take time, it may take patience but it is not impossible. Most of the rare Meeroos you see on the marketplaces come from Meeroos just like yours - granted some come from people who spent large sums of money on genetics they could see and began breeding that kind of Meeroo, but most definitely not everyone who achieved these results.