I went to check on my colony today and give them fresh veggies and there was what looked like a dead roach on the cool side by the veggie dish. Since I got them in February I've only had 1 dead and that was a male. I picked it up but it was still plump and kinda twitched it's feelers so I put it down and lightly poked its butt to see if it would scurry into the crates. All it did was drag itself a couple centimeters and do this...pulsing thing. The top of its head in the middle is kinda whitish so I think it may be trying to break out of its skin persay but it's been working on this ALL DAY. I've seen a dozen freshly molted this week but never seen the process so I'm not sure how long this generally takes.
Does this sound like simple molting? Is a whole day really too long for a molt? Does this mean it's dying?
A whole day is definitely too long, from what I've seen. I found one once that had just started shedding and it only took an hour or two for it to fully shed, if I recall correctly (I took pictures of the process, but I can't find them... I'd be able to give you a more accurate time span if I could look at the time stamps on my pictures). I'm not sure what you mean by "pulsing thing" but it doesn't really sound normal. Usually when they shed, they cling to an egg crate or something so their skin is anchored and it's easier for them to pull out of it. It's not very common for nymphs to die, but if the humidity is too low it might not be able to shed and therefore might die.