Citadel Culebra · Tom & Stacy Crutchfield
Learn from the people who helped build modern reptile keeping.
For generations, the real knowledge of reptile keeping lived in conversations, reptile rooms, and the minds of the people who built the craft — and most of it was never written down.
For the first time, Tom Crutchfield is putting six decades on the record, with Stacy bringing twenty years of her own work in reptile behavior. Whatever you keep — your first reptile or a thousand — this is your chance to learn from the people who helped build the foundation we all stand on.
Your Instructors
Tom & Stacy Crutchfield.
Tom Crutchfield is a pioneer. Across six decades of keeping, breeding, and discovery, there are very few people alive who have done more to build modern reptile keeping than he has.
Stacy — his wife and partner at the facility — came to reptiles later, and over the past twenty years has developed something rare and entirely her own: an almost intuitive command of reptile behavior, and a gift for building trust with animals most keepers never attempt.
Two very different journeys. One shared purpose — to pass what they know to the keepers who come next.
Tom Crutchfield · The Godfather of American Reptile Keeping
The Mick Jagger of the reptile world.
There are very few people alive who have witnessed — and helped shape — as much of modern reptile keeping as Tom Crutchfield. His story spans the earliest days of the hobby, the rise of captive breeding, the emergence of reptile genetics, major conservation efforts, field expeditions around the world, and the development of standards that many keepers still follow today. More importantly, he’s spent decades teaching others. This course is an opportunity to sit down with him, hear the stories directly, and learn from the lessons that only experience can teach.
Introduced countless genetics & species to the hobby — like the $21,000 albino Burmese, 1981
200+ species captive-bred — many world firsts
Caught snakes for Ross Allen as a boy
A principal advisor and lead lecturer at the school
Stacy Crutchfield · Behavioral Science & Animal Connection
One of the best at reading animal behavior.
Tom has worked with nearly everyone in this field — and he calls Stacy one of the best he’s ever seen at reading animal behavior. She came to reptiles through Tom, and over the past twenty years has built a specialty that’s entirely her own. Where Tom carries the history, Stacy has gone deep on something else: behavior — reading animals and building trust with species many people consider impossible to work with, through patience, observation, empathy, and consistency. Her work with croc monitors and other highly intelligent reptiles has challenged long-held assumptions about what a relationship with a reptile can even look like. Her lessons aren’t about controlling animals. They’re about understanding them.
Croc-monitor, Culebra & zoo-grade animal behavior — connection breakthroughs
Pioneering reptile behavioral science
A woman leading in a male-dominated field
Hands-on naturalistic care
Tom · The Living Legend
A living icon of American reptiles.
A breeder, an importer, a pioneer of the modern reptile industry — and one of the last of a founding generation. These aren’t claims. They’re the record.
200+
Species captive-bred — many world firsts
$21,000
His 1981 albino Burmese — one of the buys that introduced new genetics & species to the hobby
60+
Years building the modern reptile industry
World
Renowned herpetologist — papers, zoos, ecotours
I came up on Tom Crutchfield.
Only at the Citadel
Stories you’ll only hear here.
Six decades in the field, told in his own words. Open one.
Saving a lifeThe Venom One team he & Stacy trained
Tom and Stacy helped train Miami’s Venom One unit. When a man was bitten by an inland taipan — the most venomous snake on earth — on 9/11, it was the team they’d trained that facilitated the response and got the antivenom there in time. He lived. That’s the work — not only saving lives, but training the people who do.
HollywoodReptiles for the big screen
Over the years Tom supplied reptiles for film and television — including animals for Indiana Jones and The Walking Dead. Some of the creatures you’ve seen on screen came from a collection like his.
Only at the Citadel“I supplied iguanas to Megan Thee Stallion.”
“Very nice lady,” he added, almost as an afterthought. Six decades in, the stories just keep coming — and he’s finally putting them on camera.
Oh — I forgot to tell you, I supplied some iguanas to Megan Thee Stallion a while back. Very nice lady.
Eye to eye · the cobra
Tom today · still in the room
Two Ways In
Buy the course — or get everything.
The Art of Keeping Reptiles is an interactive learning digital course — documentary interviews, tests, quizzes, presentations, and ebooks, all bundled in. Pre-order it now for $149 — it goes to $199 the day it drops, Friday, June 12th. Or enroll for $49/month, get early access a week early, and unlock everything else we release: the books, the courses, all of it.
The Course · Pre-order · Save $50
The Art of Keeping Reptiles
Lock in the pre-order price now. It rises to $199 the day it drops, Friday, June 12th— and it’s yours to keep for life.
- An interactive learning digital course — not just video
- Documentary interviews with the masters, on camera
- Interactive tests, quizzes & slide presentations
- Downloadable ebooks & reading material — included
- Culebra Codex access for what you buy — study every product you own inside the Codex
- Lifetime access — yours to keep · certificate of completion
Founding Tuition · The whole school
Enroll
or $495/year · locked for life
Everything the school is — for less than one course every three months. The founding rate disappears after 15,000 students.
- Early access — the nine-week course a week before it drops
- Every course & masterclass we release, included
- Full Culebra Codex access — the entire library of ebooks & care guides
- The whole technology stack — Cerebro, Codex, Exchange & Connect
- Culebra Connect — the community of serious keepers
- Your $49 rate locked for life — first 15,000 only
Buy now · login credentials & platform access granted Wednesday, June 10th
Standard tuition is $79/mo once the founding class fills — full plans further down.
Tom · The History
Sixty years, told for the first time.
Sit down with Tom as he walks through six decades in an interview format he’s never done before — the triumphs and the mistakes, the good and the bad, told honestly. It’s rare to find someone with sixty years who can look back on a whole life of helping build an industry and share all of it — so the keepers of today, and the keepers still to come, can learn from every part.
The archive · swipe through the years
Life is not measured by material wealth, but by memories of a dream well lived.
Tom · The Philosophy
The idea behind everything he does.
Umwelt
/ˈʊm.vɛlt/ · German
An animal’s own perceptual world — reality as it experiences it, not as we assume.
Tom’s whole philosophy turns on one idea: to truly keep an animal, you have to learn its Umwelt — to stop projecting your world onto it and start seeing the world the way the reptile actually does. It’s the difference between housing an animal and understanding one.
“It’s only when both the keeper and the kept lose their fear of each other that the magical understanding begins.”
Learn their Umwelt
See the world from the reptile’s perspective before you decide what it needs.
Lose the fear — both of you
Real understanding only begins when keeper and animal both stop being afraid.
Earn the knowledge
Six decades of judgment you can’t get from a book — only from doing it.
Give it back
What he wants to be remembered for: handing this knowledge to the next generation.
In his own words · swipe through
His Legacy
More than anything, Tom wants to be remembered as a man who understood these animals as deeply as a person possibly can — down to their very core essence. And what he wants now is to give it back: to put that knowledge in the hands of the next generation of herpers while he’s still here to pass it on — so it spreads, and so this community comes together stronger than it ever has been.
The Philosophy
It’s only when both the keeper and the kept both lose their fear of each other that the magical understanding begins.
Tom Crutchfield
Six decades of keeping, distilled into a single sentence.
Stacy · In Her Own Right
A master of understanding animals.
Stacy stands on her own two feet — a woman who built a place in a field that rarely makes room, and became one of the most gifted behavioral keepers anyone in this industry has seen.
The Croc Monitor Breakthrough
She just went ahead and did it.
Tom says he’d never have let anyone bring croc monitors into the bed or climb into their enclosure. Stacy did it on her own — and that’s when he realized how intelligent these animals truly are, and what becomes possible when you actually take the time to understand them. Her work is the behavioral science most keepers are still afraid to attempt.
What the animals teach her
Every reptile is a study in trust, patience, and reading signals most people miss entirely.
Behavioral science, hands-on
Socialization, enrichment, and connection — observed and tested daily, not theorized.
Croc monitors & large lizards
Building genuine relationships with some of the most intelligent, demanding lizards alive.
A woman leading the way
Carving out a place — and a standard — in a field that rarely makes room for it.
“She’s one of the best at reading animal behavior I’ve ever seen — and that’s not just because she’s my wife. The proof is in the pudding. She’s done things I didn’t think were possible, until she did them.”
Hot work
Women keep venomous, too.
In case anyone forgot: women keep venomous. Stacy is one of them — and she’s far from alone. There’s a whole roster of prominent female hot-keepers we’ll be highlighting right here, and Stacy is proudly among them. This is her with a rhino viper, working it like it’s second nature.
Stacy at work · swipe through
Learn the behavioral science most keepers are still afraid to attempt — with direct access to the woman writing it.
Learn from StacyWhat They’ll Teach You
Everything, from two people who actually know.
From handling venomous snakes to earning an iguana’s trust — the full range of the craft, taught the way only Tom & Stacy can teach it.
Socialization & Behavioral Science
How to actually read an animal — its body language, its signals, its moods — and build real trust over time. The science of how reptiles think, learn, and respond, taught hands-on rather than from a textbook.
Handling Venomous Snakes
Hot-keeping done the right way: protocol, tools, room setup, and the kind of respect that keeps you alive. Drawn from a lifetime of working some of the most dangerous animals on earth without incident.
Breeding & Bloodlines
Pairings, cycling, incubation, and the genetics behind producing healthy animals — including the work that produced documented world firsts and helped shape the modern hobby.
Reptile History
Six decades of how this entire hobby was built — the imports, the price lists, the pioneers, the firsts. Living history from the people who were in the room when it happened.
Croc Monitors & Large Lizards
Building genuine relationships with some of the most intelligent, demanding lizards alive — the breakthroughs in connection and care that most keepers still think are impossible.
Husbandry Done Right
Climate, enclosures, lighting, feeding, and daily care — the unglamorous foundation that everything else depends on, dialed in correctly for the species you actually keep.
Physiology, Conservation & Field Studies
How these animals are built and how they live in the wild — anatomy and physiology, plus the ecotours, field research, and conservation work that reveal what's really at stake.
Philosophy & Umwelt
Learning to see the world the way the animal actually experiences it — the mindset shift that separates housing an animal from truly understanding one.
Also in the Course
You’ll also learn from three more masters of the craft.
The Art of Keeping Reptiles also features three more masters of the craft — George Van Horn, Ty Park, and Steve Angeli — each sitting down for the course.
George Van Horn
Zoological operations, venom milking & venomous snake handling · Reptile World Serpentarium
Ty Park
Zoological operations, endangered species breeding & overall husbandry — special emphasis on tortoises, turtles & iguanas · Iguanaland
Steve Angeli
Heloderma lizards, breeding at scale & handling of venomous animals
This Is Just the Beginning
The first course — and an ongoing room with them.
This is the first course Tom & Stacy have ever done — and it’s the first room in something ongoing. It’s not just a coaching group with Tom, Stacy, and a roster of other industry giants giving back to mold the next generation of keepers. It’s also a refined space for already-advanced keepers — a place for serious people to actually reach each other and share real information, instead of shouting into a feed. More courses, lectures, and live sessions are on the way.
Aspiring venomous keepers
Learn protocol and respect from people who’ve done it for a lifetime.
Breeders
From first pairings to world firsts — the real work behind producing animals.
Everyday keepers
Whatever you keep, get it right — coached by the best in the business.
Relationship builders
Learn to truly understand and connect with your animals, Stacy’s specialty.
What’s coming
- An ongoing coaching room — Tom, Stacy & other industry giants with you
- A refined community for advanced keepers to reach each other directly
- More courses on the way, dropping inside the school
- Live lectures and sessions as the school grows
- Direct access to ask your real questions and keep learning
Test Your Knowledge
The reptile history quiz.
A taste of the interactive lessons inside — real quizzes, graded exams, and certificates on Tom’s history and philosophy live in the course.
5quick questions. No pressure — it’s a preview of how you’ll learn (and earn your certificate of completion) inside.
Tuition
One Tuition. A Lifetime of Learning.
Citadel Culebra was created around a simple idea: the reptile community deserves a place where knowledge is preserved, shared, challenged respectfully, and passed to the next generation.
Tuition provides access to every course, every publication in the Codex library, the Culebra technology ecosystem, live lectures, faculty sessions, and a community built around respect for animals, respect for the craft, and respect for one another. The goal isn’t to sell courses — it’s to build the educational home this community has been missing.
The first 15,000 students become the Founding Class. Their support helps us document the stories, experiences, research, and lessons of some of the most influential reptile keepers of our time, before that knowledge is lost. This is bigger than a single course — it’s the beginning of a permanent archive for reptile keeping.
Citadel CulebraTuition · A Lifetime of Learning · First 15,000 Founding Seats
One tuition. The whole school.
Every course, the full Codex library, the entire technology stack, and the community — all of it under one plan. The first 15,000 students lock the founding rate for life. Zero tolerance for disrespect. Critique the method, never the person.
Tuition is a subscription — not a one-time payment. Founding students keep their $49/mo rate for life, for as long as the tuition stays active. After the first 15,000, tuition is $79/mo. The subscription is cancelable anytime.
The keepers behind it · and more to come
Founding Class
or $495/year · locked for life
The founding rate. Lock it in before the class fills.
- Every course & masterclass — all 18, as they drop
- The entire Codex library of ebooks & care guides
- The full technology stack — Cerebro, Codex, Exchange & Connect
- Culebra Connect — the moderated community of serious keepers
- Certificates, exams & the standardized curriculum
- Your rate locked for life, for as long as you stay enrolled
Standard Tuition
or $749/year
The same all-access tuition — opens once the founding class is full.
- Everything in the Founding Class
- All courses, ebooks & the full technology stack
- Culebra Connect community access
- Certificates, exams & the standardized curriculum
Opens once the founding class fills
Prefer to buy just one thing? · À la carte
Not into a recurring subscription? Totally fine. We want every one of these products to be affordable enough for anyone to just buy one thing, one time, and own it. No pressure, no membership required. The only reason the subscription exists is to keep the price absurdly low while the value stacks sky-high — every course, every ebook, every podcast episode, everything, plus full access to the technology platform. If you ever want all of it, it’s there for $50 a month, cancelable anytime.
$149
Per course · lifetime
The Art of Keeping Reptiles — a full interactive digital course. Documentary interviews, tests, quizzes, presentations, and ebooks, all bundled in. Own it outright, keep it for good.
$9.99–29.99
Per Codex ebook
Care guides and species deep-dives, written by the keepers who lived it.
$99/mo
Cerebro platform only
Run your collection on the OS without the full tuition.
Everything you buy lives in the Culebra Codex. Purchase à la carte and you unlock the Codex for those specific products — read, study, and reference them anytime. Become a member and the entire Codex library opens to you, in full.
Every à-la-carte purchase is included free with tuition — the goal isn’t to sell you one thing. It’s to make you a keeper for life.
Buy now · login credentials emailed & platform access granted Wednesday, June 10th · the course drops Friday, June 12th
Inside Culebra Connect · The Community
Live with the masters
Students ask the faculty directly — live, every month.
Discipline channels
Moderated rooms by species and discipline inside Culebra Connect.
Faculty AMAs & meetups
Live video sessions and student-to-student connections.
Auto-translation
Connect speaks nearly every language — keepers worldwide, one room.
When the first 15,000 founding seats are gone, the rate is gone for good.
Login credentials emailed & platform access granted Wednesday, June 10th · the course drops Friday, June 12th
The Masterclass Library · 18 in Progress
A whole library of masterclasses — included with tuition.
The Art of Keeping Reptiles is the first of many — next up, a Kevin McCurley masterclass, then dedicated classes on behavioral science, socialization, and the anatomy of species. Students get every one as it drops.
Every masterclass is included with tuition — added the moment it drops, at no extra cost.
The Technology Stack
A school that built its own software.
Four integrated products — the Culebra stack — so everything you learn has somewhere to live. All four are included with tuition.
Culebra Cerebro
Summer 2026The Operating System
Collection management — husbandry, breeding, health, climate & supplies, from one animal to five thousand.
Culebra Codex
Live nowThe Academy
The library: interactive courses, ebooks, care guides, flashcards, search & auto-translation.
Culebra Exchange
Summer 2026The Marketplace
Vetted breeders, escrow checkout, integrated shipping, a reels feed, and a full supply store.
Culebra Connect
Live nowThe Community
Moderated discipline channels, faculty AMAs, live meetups & student-to-student connections.
Real, built software · not a promise
Q&A
The honest answers.
Who is this school for?
Everyone from first-time keepers to lifelong professionals — hobbyists, breeders, educators, and zoo staff. The curriculum starts at the fundamentals and goes as deep as you want to take it.
How do I enroll?
Enroll to unlock the whole school, or buy a single course or ebook à la carte. Founding tuition is $49/mo (or $495/year) for the first 15,000 students — that rate is locked for life.
What does tuition include?
All of it — for $50 a month. And no, that's not a typo. Every course and masterclass, every ebook, every podcast episode, the full Codex library, the entire technology stack (Cerebro, Codex, Exchange and Connect), the community, certificates, and the standardized curriculum. The next courses drop in July with Kevin McCurley, Ty Park, George Van Horn, and Steve Angeli — and more after that. One low rate, an absurd amount of value, locked for life while you stay enrolled.
When does the first course drop?
The Art of Keeping Reptiles launches Friday, June 12, 2026 — a documentary masterclass with five legends of the hobby. More masterclasses follow on a rolling basis.
Do I need to own reptiles already?
No. Whether you keep one animal, a thousand, or none yet, the school is built to meet you where you are.
Are the courses accredited? Do I get a certificate?
Honestly? We don't think there's a higher accreditation than the people teaching this. We have the top reptile minds in the world building this curriculum — from academia, we have PhD herpetologists like Dr. Steve Dinkula; from the private world, we have pioneers and legends like Kevin McCurley and Tom Crutchfield. We're bridging academia, the private keeping world, and everything in between. We're not an officially accredited collegiate university — but in this field, this faculty far outweighs anything else offered anywhere. You earn a certificate of completion for every course, with structured exams and assessments along the way.
What if it's not for me?
Tuition and courses are refundable within 14 days of orientation. The subscription is cancelable anytime — no contracts, no hoops.
Is the community moderated?
Yes — and it's a core reason this school exists. The creators got tired of watching keepers get eviscerated in Facebook groups while bad information spread unchecked. Here, the community is moderated three ways: by the experts and faculty, by trusted members of the community itself, and by a 24/7 tech team. Critique the method, never the person. Zero tolerance for bullying.
Coming Soon · The Next Masterclasses
The next masterclasses are already in the works.
The Art of Keeping Reptiles is only the first. A roster of masterclasses is filming now — each one included with tuition, the moment it drops.
Kevin McCurley
Genetics, behavioral science, socialization, large constrictors, venomous & breeding at scale
Masterclass · Coming Soon
Steve Angeli
Heloderma lizards, venomous snakes & breeding at scale
Masterclass · Coming Soon
Ty Park
Turtles & tortoises, husbandry & endangered species breeding
Masterclass · Coming Soon
George Van Horn
Venom milking & venomous handling
Masterclass · Coming Soon
One tuition. Every masterclass, the day it releases.
EnrollStep Inside
One tuition. Everything inside.
Lock in the founding rate — $49/mo for the first 15,000 students, yours for life — and every course, the full library, the technology stack, and the community open at once. Prefer just the masterclass? Pre-order The Art of Keeping Reptiles on its own for $149 — $199 once it drops.
Login credentials & platform access granted Wednesday, June 10th · standard tuition $79/mo after the founding class
Join Us
Help preserve the knowledge.
Every generation inherits lessons from the people who came before it. For decades, those lessons have been scattered across conversations, magazines, expos, personal collections, field expeditions, and memories.
Citadel Culebra exists to bring them together. To preserve the past. To advance the present. To inspire the future.
If you’ve ever wished there was one place where keepers, breeders, zoological professionals, field herpetologists, behavior specialists, conservationists, researchers, educators, and passionate reptile enthusiasts could learn together — this is what we’re building. We’d be honored to have you join us.
Reserve your founding seat
Lock your founding rate now — enter your details and continue straight to secure checkout. The subscription is cancelable anytime, and tuition is refundable within 14 days of orientation.