Mud turtles are actually aquatic and NEED to be under water in order to eat. They can manage in a muddy AREA for a while but If you can find the little guy again, he'll probably have a better chance in a pond.I kept the little fella overnight to make sure he hadn't been adversely affect by the mites that were on him. It rained quite a bit yesterday and I took him to the back of my property where I found a spot where water seemed to be sitting slightly. I figure there are plenty of snails and slugs back there under the leaf litter for food.
I considered keeping him as @Moozillion had suggested but I don't have the proper setup or even a space right now.
I will be putting in a small pond but it will probably not be started for another month. Maybe I will get to see more of these little guys in the future.
If you can't find him, do NOT feel bad: WE ALL LEARN.
Back when I was in college, MANY years ago, I was a biology major and assisted with various programs in our biology department. One of the studies was catching wild turtles, drawing their blood for some sort of testing, then release them back into the wild the same day or the next day. One of my tasks was to release the turtles. Different people brought in different turtles from all over: we never knew specifically where a turtle came from. No one told me that box turtles are not aquatic (please remember, I was between 18 and 22 at the time). When they gave me a turtle to release, I would drive it out to a fairly deep, large creek and drop them out in the middle. The sliders were probably happy with that, but to this day I feel badly for the box turtles that I dropped into the creek, thinking I was doing the right thing.