If you have a specific pet goal in mind like a lupe or gelert I wouldn't recommend getting the lab to try and achieve the goal. The lab is just too unpredictable - one of my labs never changes species, another always changes species, but even then you may not get the species change you like.
If you just want to change from a uni and see what you get then the lab ray can be great fun as you could end up with a fantastic pet.
If you are set on getting a lupe or gelert then I would recommend looking at transmogrification potions. The gelert transmog isn't out yet (should be soon though) but the lupe one only costs about 170k which is a fair bit cheaper than the mps I think
You could also have a secondary account on which to keep more pets if you decide to keep the uni but still want a lupe/gelert. Good luck deciding!