I am starting to have real fun with my meeroos and starting to get the kind of surprises so many of you have been posting about for weeks and months. But it was a long way to get there, and there's one question I ask myself again and again, so I thought I'd ask it here.

My original roos never gave me any other "higher" coat than reds. No ears, tails, heads, fluff whatever, no matter how I bred them, mixed them etc. So I swapped some and got some plain others from the secondary market. Somewhen in July (I've been into Meeroos since the preorders) a red and an autumn threw an amber. I was thrilled. I paired the siblings of the parents. Aunts, uncles, bred back to grandparents etc etc but no other amber for weeks. Around three weeks later that very pair gave me another amber, and that was it. I got a mate for my first amber on the secondary market back when they were rather expensive, and they gave me a highland. I bred them, mixed them, went down to generation 9 or something and got nothing but highlands and ambers. Still no ears, tails, heads or fluff nowhere.

Already in the first weeks I bought a short ear. She never passed her ears until I learned she needs a short ear mate. Those two actually gave me my first short ears. I mixed them, bred them back and forth and around, there were times when I had around 10 short ear meeroos, bred them down to generation 9 or 10 - no evolution at all. No notched, or even tiger ear, nothing. Their coats evolved back to fawn and winecoat over time, so one day I chose to release them all.

Somewhen in late August, 3 months into asking myself what I'm doing wrong, I decided to get two koi/emperor offsprings from the same breeder (a sierra and an amber). They also were quite pricy at the time. I forgave them their first two sierra nests, then bred them to different partners and bred their grandchildren together - a highland and a red. And woot - they threw an azure. I almost fell off my chair. I sold it right away to get the money I invested back. This pair gave me one more azure and a kabuki, in between they throw caledonians.

I tried the same method I had used before with no success and mated the siblings of this pair - a red and an amber. Their first nest was an emperor with a SHORT TAIL!!! And their second one a kabuki. So... my breeding method can't have been all that wrong? The main part of my current herd goes back to these two offspring nests I bought, I don't have any offspring of the ones I got before anymore as their personalities weren't compatible.

I happened to get a short tail dryad from the vendor, so I thought well, I didn't have luck with the ears, I might try tails. I got short tailed fawns for a while and I don't really like short tails - I do like very short tails though. After a while I bought a very short tailed Sierra. So, a few days ago there was another surprise: two short tailed fawns gave me a double short... highland!!! I'm aware that the roos I got at the secondary market have a pedigree and a history where traits had already been visible. My own never had anything of that and never discovered or threw anything of that. That was sooo frustrating for such a long time and now, all of a sudden, I get all excited at every new nest.

My regard had already been kindof high in August, at the moment it's around 600K, but I seriously doubt that it has to do with my regard. Or has it?

Is it really only the genes, and is it a lie that any meeroo can throw anything if combined with the right other meeroo?

Any feedback welcome and thanks for reading
Lail