Hi there!
I go to the giving tree every day and adopt a cub, sometimes there are real gems in there (I found a mottled rosette once!) and sometimes there are potatoes.

I had a thought, what if the quality of the item you use to lure the cub into your pride affected the rarity of the cub. For example if you use a feather to lure a cub in its more likely you’ll receive a potato. If you use something more valuable like a gem or full use toy or food item you’d be more likely to receive a cub with more valuable markings/base/etc.
Using more valuable items to lure a cub would only increase the chance of a valuable cub by a little bit so there’s still a chance of getting a potato and of course this all depends on how many cubs are present at the tree.
Idk let me know what you think and feel free to suggest!