I have a question about crickets

[Maxwell]

I bought 5 crickets yesterday, and today I fed him a gut loaded cricket, didnt want anymore. But then I looked in my container and there were still 5. The one that was the smallest had no wings and a lighter skin(baby?). So I'm wondering how that's possible? By the way the last time I'm pretty sure I had 10 and then 12 a couple days later.

[JeffreH]

I'm a little confused by your question, do you think your crickets are multiplying? Like, multiplying by division?

You would know if you had a baby; crickets lay eggs (Lots of em, generally in moist particulate media). Newborn crickets are tiny, frequently referred to as pinheads due to their tiny size. Is it possible you simply miscounted? Or perhaps thought of a cricket as dead, which was actually in the process of molting? This would make sense with seeing one that was lighter skinned, those with freshly shed skin are white in color and maintain light coloration until their exoskeleton fully hardens... sometimes crickets who are molting appear to be dead until their skin splits.

[Kreamcheese]

Also to expand on what Jeff said about the molting. Are all of the crickets you're seeing even moving? Because there can be some skins like Jeff said that look like crickets but in fact are just their shed.

[Maxwell]

Yep all moving, bought 5 Sunday, fed one Monday, still had 5 it's really odd