Viva naming and mutations

I've been exploring a couple of sites dedicated to Viva Piñata -- but not too deeply, just trying to get some directional info without spoilers.  Apparently, every creature has at least 3 color variations that can be brought upon by what they eat.  Sometimes, eating the right plant/food/fellow piñata can even mutate or "evolve" the piñata into an entirely different creature.

So, last night I set upon my experiment to create some mutations.  I'd direct my piñatas to a given plant or some food and 9 times out of 10 (maybe more) they'd just hang their head and shake it from side to side in disappointment.  I felt like they were disappointed in me.  However, I was able to mutate a pretztail (fox) to blue and another to pink.  I also got a sparrowmint to turn into a canadary.  While I was busy with my experiment, one of my doenuts (bucks) must have eaten some bad candy and fell ill.  I was so wrapped up trying to mutate my creatures that I didn't see Destardos come in and put my doenut to death.

My kids loving coming up with names for our piñatas, but there is a pattern emerging.  My son names every creature by tacking "super" in front of the name.  So "super pretztail", "super bunnycomb", etc.  My daughter isn't happy unless she combines two species names and a human name, so we get things like "doenut pretztail cindy" or "bark-bark mimi crowla".