Could. Not. Work. Nope, don't buy it. Because you have to fake there death for people too, not just controllers.
You'd have to get the host's family, any close friends or coworkers during the starvation process keep them under wraps too; the Yeerks are going to go looking if their own keep dying off in "accidents". And keeping folks under cover like that, maybe for years. Their not dogs, they won't want to stay in the Chee's park eternally.
You might get one or two with it, but nothing like what would make the effort work
When Ax is in human morph, he goes nuts over food. Does Visser 3 have the same problem when he's in human morph? Does he direct his minions to be on the lookout for humans going nuts over food?
Doubt it. He doesn't care about humans, and the Ax food response is an Andalite thing-V3's tasted stuff as a Yeerk, even as a Hork-Bajir, not as big a deal
The Alien: Ax pretends to be Jake's cousin Phillip, and goes to school. Shouldn't that make Tom suspicious, since he would know that Jake doesn't have a cousin named Phillip?
Tom and Jake don't go to the same school, and I doubt Chapman's reporting everything Jake does to Tom; especially since Yeerks are dying at that time