My female keets are eating the dried feces on bottom of cage

Question
I am wondering if you may be able to tell me why it is that my 2 female parakeets have started in the past few days to eat dried feces from the grill of their cages?. I feed them veggies,some fruit,Harrison's pellets and some seeds as treats (about twice a week).I was thinking that perhaps they are getting bored of the Harrison's and thinking of switching to Zupreem Fruit Blend as well as Zupreem Natural pellets for variety.They will only eat the broccoli and not any other type of fruits and veggies no matter how I prepare them and I have tried dicing,grating,whole(hanging on side of cage etc...I weaned them from a diet of seeds because that was all that was offered to them from their previous owners yet they have now been with me going on 3 years.I also have 2 male parakeets yet they are not eating the feces from the grills of their cages. I have a pair in each cage and the cages are good sizes and not the smaller cages.I love my FIDS so very much and am so concerned about this newest behavior with my females.I am wondering if I need to purchase some foraging type of toys and what might they be? as I am thinking perhaps my females may be wanting to forage at the bottom of their cages? My 2 females have not ever laid eggs and I do not wish for them too as I want them only as pairs without breeding them therefore I never have nesting materials in the cages.I would greatly appreciate any advice that you may be able to give me because it is not like my precious babies to be eating the dried feces as they are fed well and I do not neglect their needs nutritionally in any way.Thank you so very much for taking the time to answer my question as I am so in hopes to have this problem corrected as soon as possible.With warmest regards and much gratitude from the mom of 4 beautiful parakeets, Poobear AKA Texas Polar Bear (Gina):-)

Answer
Hi, Gina.  Thanks for posting!

Poop eating, also called copraphagia, can either be the result of improper diet where certain minerals and vitamins are missing (nutritional deficiency) or can just be a nasty habit the bird developed for some reason.  Exactly what this nutritional deficiency might be I don't know.  Are you providing any type of mineral block and/or cuttlebone?  What type of lighting do you use with your birds?  

You might want to try cooked brown rice with shredded veggies mixed in.  Keets also love corn bread, different types of greens (kale, mustard, collard), whole/multi grain dry/sugarless cereals, etc.  

What do their droppings look like?

Chrys