To the questions directed at me, I apologize for not answering. I was sleeping >_<.

Basically though, ignore any fruits that do no give the message. They "don't count" as far as I can tell. Unless the result I got with ~25 fruits based on a calculation being the result I was aiming for was a complete fluke, that should be the key to figuring out how to traverse the colors, at least in a brute force kind of way.

Also, I've gone through like half a dozen colors changes on my chocobo now, and in this I noticed a pattern. Each time I started a new 6 hr countdown by feeding it, I always had the first 1-3 fruits give no feather notification. Once I finally got the notification though, I got it for every fruit I fed after it during the 6hr window.

There was one exception to this, and that was when the stable was in Poor condition. In that case I fed nearly 5 or so pears before I saw a message, and after it was still spotty with occasional fruits not going through.

Best of luck to everyone, especially those following my suggestions. I sincerely hope they work, because it may help shed a lot more light on what's going on in the system with a few more confirmations.