My advice is to purchase a rack, especially if a beginner, because the designs have been tried and tweaked for results.

However, leopard geckos are easier to build racks for compared to snakes. Leopard geckos cannot climb up and out as easy as snakes do. Geckos certainly can escape if openings are large enough, but if the box sides are a bit tall, a lid is not even needed.

So, you can simply buy shelving from Home Depot, Lowes, etc - either wire rack shelving (my favorite) or those relatively inexpensive garage plastic shelf units. Then use plastic storage boxes with lids (Sterilite for example). For heating, you can use Ultratherm heat mats (easiest) or Flexwatt. You will need a temperature controller. I can help with that as well when you are ready.

I got some nice plastic boxes from Ikea, they were roomy and tall. I kept some leos in that with no lid at all. I just had a shoebox-sized plastic box in the cage with a hole cut out and moistened coco fiber in the plastic shoebox. The cage floor except for the hide box described was packing paper sheets. Worked great! Leos relish a dark, damp hide as described. The rest of the cage can be dry. Paper is great because the lizard can eat on it with no problems.

Look on Youtube for SnakeBytes episodes dealing with leopard geckos. Brian shows a typical rack setup that many breeders use. It is simple and effective, and the lizards do well in it. Also, there are videos from sassobek (spellin?) and others.

Main food can be vitamin/calcium dusted mealworms. You can supplement with crickets or roaches if you want.

I think the youtube vids will help you alot. If you want to purchase lidless racks, some mfgrs I have racks from that are suited to geckos include Dragons4you, Animal Plastics, and Reptile Basics. Make sure to get belly heat - best for leos. Overhead heat is not what you want for them. An aquarium with dome light is a no-no - I don't know why Petco pushes that setup for leos.

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