So many questions...

[strange_screams]

I pasted this under general vivs because I have animal questions too, but i guess part of this could as easily go under construction....

at any rate
Do ya'll smell your habitats?
Like I have my crickets in a 5 gal with about half an inch of eco-earth just to make them happy, I am aware that it makes it harder to clean out, but I clean it out by the smell, if I can smell it beyond having my head directly over it then i clean it out

my beardies, I have two juveniles in a 10 gal with the reptile astro turf in the bottom and a couple pieces of slate for basking, it has a strong musky smell, but not the strong ammonia smell the beardy enclosure gets at work (10 to 20 babies in a 15 gal gets dirty fast)
is musky to dirty? or is that normal (iv'e never had beardies before and i am baby sitting these)

I'm a fish and bird specialist at work, i Know the basics of reptiles but am still getting hands on experiance in many of the popular species

my ball python was abondoned at work about 3 weeks ago, i fed him 2 mice and he has hardly moved since

he shed the night i got him and again yesterday, is that weird?

from the information i had found I built two walls of river rocks with silicon
i wasnt planning on including any other hardscape, but was wondering if anyone had built a terrarium without any sort of driftwood or rocks, would the plants be enough or would incorporating more rocks be enough hardscape?

I'm in east texas, and Im worried about mold and mildew if i add wood, expessially grapevine