• Geckos will fare fine in a basic enclosure with just substrate, hiding areas and a water dish.  More elaborately decorated enclosures tend to allow the gecko to explore more of its natural behaviors.

The design of the interior of the enclosure should take into consideration the basic needs of the leopard gecko:

• Hiding areas
• Activity areas
• Basking areas

Hiding areas:

• You should have at least two hides in the enclosure at varying distances from your heat source.
  
  
• Always have one humidified shelter in the enclosure which should ideally be at the warm end of the enclosure.
  
  
• Never put a hide directly beneath a heat source!
  
  
• There are a seemingly endless supply of types of hides that you can use that include: overlapping rocks, wood or cork bark sections, commercial shelters, inverted clay pots, curved roof tiles etc...
  
  
• If you have multiple geckos in a single enclosure, be sure to provide an ample amount of appropriate hides.
  
  
• Horizontal shelters can be placed right over the substrate.

Activity areas:

• There should always be some open space for your gecko to roam around in.
  
  
• Activity areas can also include some rocks or wood that the gecko can climb over and under to stratify its environment.

Basking areas:

• You should have at least one basking spot in the enclosure for a single leopard gecko.
  
  
• If you are housing multiple geckos together in a single enclosure, be sure to provide enough basking spots to reduce the competition for basking spots.
  
  
• Take into consideration the placement of your overhead lighting and heating sources when designing a basking area.  Basking areas are directly underneath one of these sources.  Typically it involves placing a flat rock under the overhead light.
  
  
• You can use pieces of wood or rocks - any item that will allow your gecko to thermoregulate in relation to the overhead heat/light source.