Here is an updated photo of Hula taken this morning. He may not be one of those panthers with striking colours (except during his sleep) but I am still proud of him.
A few dead is still fine. You should be worried if you start to clear 10-20 mushy ones every day. I doubt its the paper towel roll, I change mine about once a month.
I would recommend more egg crates for space.
In my case, I had to clear many dead crickets every day, it was such a chore. They stopped dying when I don't cover with the lid. Btw, my lid does have a big ventilation hole with a screen mesh cover.
In my container where my crickets are kept, there is a cardboard tube (from paper towels). There will be crickets who will congregate in this tube. When dusting crickets, I will pick up the tube and shake the required amount of crickets into a dusting container (just a regular one from Ikea). If...
The shop sold her as an ambilobe or sambava and can't confirm the locale because the batch of babies was mixed. He did try his best to select a male for me but it turned out to be a female.