hmmm... thinking on this a bit more...
This game does involve mutants, eggs, etc... Perhaps some interesting and entertaining storylines involving pet eggs, creating sub-species of intermixed pets, etc. could be possible in a few years..
Have the animal essence grinder start throwing other 'rare' stuff out every now and then... perhaps a stable npc breeder that will take mixes of 2 pets and make a baby from them if you add in certain number of essence to the mix and matches, etc. Get an egg as a result, which you will then have to go on epic adventure to get hatched, etc. Could result in more dna being utilized along with mixing and matching to pet storylines somehow in some creative ways...
could take some cues from compet to make it happen, where you have to do stuff like sacrifice a level 5 pet to get the other pet you are sacrificing for to upgrade to higher levels, etc. In theory that type of thing already is in there a bit since you have to sacrifice em to make the animal essence... could just do a lot more with it than it is now.