What the hell are you doing taking on the responsibility of any kind of animal that you don't know how to take care of? Box turtles live upwards of 80 years, taken care of properly. If you can't imagine having a pet that long you have no business taking one on.
A box turtle of that size needs tons of space. Go out an buy a Sterilite tub (the big plastic storage containers they sell at Target and Walmart). Buy one with the biggest floor space area you can find, and low sides. He needs room to walk around. Mine is a 60 gallon, I think, but the sides are less than a foot high, so its low and wide. Turtles can't climb out. I'm looking into getting a bigger one, too. When I first got my turtle, he was in a 10 gallon aquarium because the owners didn't know any better. He was stir-crazy.
Go to Petco or one of those pet stores and look around in the reptile supply area. Get some wood chip type bedding- one of the big bags. They're kind of expensive but they'll last six months or so. He needs at least an inch or two of bedding in the bottom to dig around in. He needs a big water dish that he can climb into and sit in, but not swim in. At the pet stores they have fake rock looking ones with ramps built in. You'll end up changing his water every day or so, as they make it really dirty, but they need to drink it.
The pet stores will also sell pelletized box turtle food. That's good for regular feeding, but you'll want to give him some fresh fuit, worms, crickets, mulberries, and veggies at least once a week.
Reptiles need sunlight to produce vitamin D, and will start to get spongy bones and shells if they don't get it. You absolutely have to get a UVA+UVB lamp (a lot of bulbs sold for reptiles are only UVA but this will not work and you are wasting your money-read the box), which the pet stores will sell in the reptile department. They also need a heat lamp, because their environments need to be kept damp and warm. You can get the small clip-on lamps that will hold onto the side of the enclosure and the bulbs screw right in. They're fairly inexpensive. The turtle also needs a cave-type shady place to cool off if he gets too warm.
They say on care sheets that box turtles need at least four square feet of room to be happy, but mine has just under 3, and is just fine. We let him roam around the apartment for extra exercise on a regular basis.
Bottom line is, box turtles are not simple little pets to keep- at least to keep healthy. They are very rewarding pets, and have a thousand times more personality than you'd imagine a turtle could have. They take a good amount of initial investment to get their habitat going, but once you do, their care is pretty simple. I've had my box turtle for 12 years now and I don't really know what I'd do if he died, he's really important to me.
Food and water are the first things you need to get. A casserole dish with low sides will make a good temporary water dish. Feed him lettuce, carrots, any fruits and veggies until you can get some pelletized food.
Here's a picture of my setup:
If you google 'box turtle care' you'll come up with tons of articles, pictures, websites, etc. They all say slightly different things, but if you read enough of them, you'll understand the basics and be able to come up with something that your turtle will survive in, at least.
If you do that, then the dead turtle won't have maggot babies
