First and foremost, this post may be alarming to you on some level, but the important thing is that you refrain from panicking. Your leafeon will improve one way or another, but it will require a bit of effort and observation on your part.
That having been said, there may be a number of things that are preventing your leafeon from maintaining his diet of either sunlight or actual food, but the first thing you should do to rule out a few possibilities is take him to your local pokémon center. Sometimes, these behaviors indicate an illness, an injury, or a digestive blockage, any of which can be resolved by a well-trained Nurse Joy. She can also give you a customized meal plan or routine to help your leafeon get back on track, so to speak.
If the problem is more psychological in nature, then consider the following:
- Your leafeon may be under stress due to a new environment. This is especially true if you’ve recently moved to an urban environment. Most grass-types (except those who are also of the poison element) do not do as well in urban environments as they do in more rural areas due to increased air pollution or fewer available spots with an optimal amount of sunlight. If this is the case, find the nearest park to your home and make it a point to take your leafeon there for at least an hour every day. This should be done in addition to feeding your leafeon solid food, as the exposure to sunlight “jumpstarts” his appetite and lifts his morale enough to encourage him to eat.
- Alternatively, as an extension to the above, your leafeon may be experiencing stress due to the new environment itself. Increase the amount of time you spend with your leafeon and try to make his new home as happy and comfortable as possible in order to reassure him that he’s safe in your new location. If you have any other pokémon that you’ve raised alongside your leafeon, keep them close to him, including during mealtimes, in order to give him support.
- Conversely, if you have new pokémon and you’ve made it a habit to release all of your pokémon from their poké balls at once so they may eat (or photosynthesize, in the case of your leafeon) together, feed your leafeon separately from this pokémon. It’s very likely that your leafeon is uncomfortable with the new addition to your family. When it’s not feeding time, try your best to get your pokémon acclimated to one another before trying to reintegrate your leafeon with your usual feeding routine.
- If you don’t normally keep your leafeon in his ball, observe him carefully and be sure he isn’t eating between meals. If your leafeon is eating extra meals, this will cause him to avoid sunlight, as even though it’s true photosynthesis is an entirely different process from heterotrophic nutrition, if your leafeon eats his fill, his stomach will send a signal to his brain that tells him that he no longer needs to gather energy—and thus, doesn’t need to photosynthesize. Observing your leafeon’s behavior will also allow you to monitor whether or not he’s exuding wastes, so it is, in general, a good idea in your case.
- If your leafeon is simply picky (that is, he actively refuses sunlight or food by choice), switch his diet. Put him on a different food or kibble until you can find one he likes, never feed him from the table, and try giving him bites of his own food between meals as a reward for tricks or battles well fought. Most importantly, establish a routine and be consistent about it. If your leafeon is simply consciously picky, then that means getting him to eat is a matter of training, just as you would train him for battle. But if you’re consistent about what you do and strict about what you feed him, he’ll eventually learn to eat what you give him when you give it to him. Or he’ll be so weary of you that he’ll go back to photosynthesizing.
That having been said, anonymous, I wish you the best of luck, and may your leafeon get well soon.
The Pokédex According to Bill 