I use part bark and part sand in our dragon enclosures & haven't noticed any smells. We clean up poops as they are observed and regularly spot clean. Our beardy gets a full clean bedding every few weeks - we wash his cage out just with dish washing liquid and maybe spray some Repti-cleanse around but apart from that, make sure uneat food is removed and not let go off. Our dragons love digging so they get half a sandy cage and a bit of bark, too.
As for my snakes I am going back to newspaper. Have been trialing the artificial turf but now 2 of my snakes have sore noses
from nosing their way underneath the mat which is quite rough on the underside
