As some additional examples to Scath's post, here are some of the projects I have done, including starting pets, completed pairs, and time it took to complete the projects:

Project example #1: Midnight Waltz Aeridini
This project was an essence project, meaning that the starter pets were all made with essences

Starting pets:

Male #1, Male #2 and Female

Completed pair:


Time to complete: about 10 months



Project example #2: Fairy Tale Soft Sunset Ny'vene
This project is a themed project, meaning that all starter pets were from the same theme (in this case Soft Sunset Ny'venes).

Starting pets:

Female #1, Male #1, Female #2, Female #3, Male #2, Male #3, Female #4

Completed pair:


Time to complete: about 18 months

Project example #3: Angelic Luffox
This project is a dye project, meaning that the starting parents were random pets that already existed with one or more traits I wanted. These pets were bred together until the desired trait combination appeared, and then the final pair was dyed to the correct colours.

Starting pets:

Female 1, Male 1, Female 2, Male 2, Female 3, Male #3, Female 4, Male 4, Female 5, Male 5, Female 6, Male 6

Completed pair:



Time to complete: about 9 months

As Scath mentioned, projects are all about a specific goal. Most of the time the goal has to do with a specific end look, and if you're wanting to sell your projects, then it usually involves creating an identical (or near identical - some people like a little trait diversity) pair that gives the same results every time in their offspring. Goals that don't involve a specific end look usually involve stat breeding (breeding to max stats - 100 in base strength, intelligence, dexterity and agility, 1,000 in base health, and 200 in base mana; or super stats - max base stats plus high amounts of wild stats). However, even with stat breeding, post buyers want a good-looking pet, so stat projects often come after a visual project. For a max stat project, expect to add an additional year of breeding time. For super stats, probably another year on top of that (so two years after getting the right visible result).