diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6e9243b..e15ccab 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ The following are node attributes passed to the template for the runit service.
 
 - `memcached['memory']` - maximum memory for memcached instances.
 - `memcached['user']` - user to run memcached as.
-- `memcached['port']` - port for memcached to listen on.
+- `memcached['port']` - TCP port for memcached to listen on.
+- `memcached['udp_port']` - UDP port for memcached to listen on.
 - `memcached['listen']` - IP address for memcache to listen on, defaults to **0.0.0.0** (world accessible).
 - `memcached['maxconn']` - maximum number of connections to accept (defaults to 1024)
 - `memcached['max_object_size']` - maximum size of an object to cache (defaults to 1MB)
diff --git a/attributes/default.rb b/attributes/default.rb
index 85079a3..ac9d6c5 100644
--- a/attributes/default.rb
+++ b/attributes/default.rb
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 default['memcached']['memory'] = 64
 default['memcached']['port'] = 11_211
+default['memcached']['udp_port'] = 11_211
 default['memcached']['listen'] = '0.0.0.0'
 default['memcached']['maxconn'] = 1024
 default['memcached']['max_object_size'] = '1m'
diff --git a/recipes/default.rb b/recipes/default.rb
index 4e4faf7..8bd6076 100644
--- a/recipes/default.rb
+++ b/recipes/default.rb
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
       :user        => node['memcached']['user'],
       :group       => node['memcached']['group'],
       :port        => node['memcached']['port'],
+      :udp_port    => node['memcached']['udp_port'],
       :maxconn     => node['memcached']['maxconn'],
       :memory      => node['memcached']['memory'],
       :logfilename => node['memcached']['logfilename']
@@ -81,6 +82,7 @@
       :listen          => node['memcached']['listen'],
       :user            => node['memcached']['user'],
       :port            => node['memcached']['port'],
+      :udp_port        => node['memcached']['udp_port'],
       :maxconn         => node['memcached']['maxconn'],
       :memory          => node['memcached']['memory'],
       :max_object_size => node['memcached']['max_object_size']
diff --git a/templates/default/memcached.conf.erb b/templates/default/memcached.conf.erb
index 85037d3..9455979 100644
--- a/templates/default/memcached.conf.erb
+++ b/templates/default/memcached.conf.erb
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ logfile /var/log/memcached.log
 
 # Default connection port is 11211
 -p <%= @port %>
+-U <%= @udp_port %>
 
 # Run the daemon as root. The start-memcached will default to running as root if no
 # -u command is present in this config file
diff --git a/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.redhat.erb b/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.redhat.erb
index 5ec7c18..c2e18da 100644
--- a/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.redhat.erb
+++ b/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.redhat.erb
@@ -10,4 +10,4 @@ PORT="<%= @port %>"
 USER="<%= @user %>"
 MAXCONN="<%= @maxconn %>"
 CACHESIZE="<%= @memory %>"
-OPTIONS="-l <%= @listen %> >> /var/log/<%= @logfilename %> 2>&1"
+OPTIONS="-U <%= @udp_port %> -l <%= @listen %> >> /var/log/<%= @logfilename %> 2>&1"
diff --git a/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.suse.erb b/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.suse.erb
index 9a1b360..e4373d1 100644
--- a/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.suse.erb
+++ b/templates/default/memcached.sysconfig.suse.erb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 # see man 1 memcached for more
 #
 MEMCACHED_PARAMS="<%= "-l #{@listen} -c #{@maxconn} " +
-                      "-m #{@memory} -p #{@port} >> /var/log/#{@logfilename} 2>&1"%>"
+                      "-m #{@memory} -U #{@udp_port} -p #{@port} >> /var/log/#{@logfilename} 2>&1"%>"
 
 ## Path:        Network/WWW/Memcached
 ## Description: username memcached should run as
diff --git a/templates/default/sv-memcached-run.erb b/templates/default/sv-memcached-run.erb
index 28c2fd5..01c68ad 100644
--- a/templates/default/sv-memcached-run.erb
+++ b/templates/default/sv-memcached-run.erb
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 exec 2>&1
-exec chpst -u <%= @options[:user] %> /usr/bin/memcached -v -m <%= @options[:memory] %> -p <%= @options[:port] %> -u <%= @options[:user] %> -l <%= @options[:listen] %> -c <%= @options[:maxconn] %>
+exec chpst -u <%= @options[:user] %> /usr/bin/memcached -v -m <%= @options[:memory] %> -U <%= @options[:udp_port] %> -p <%= @options[:port] %> -u <%= @options[:user] %> -l <%= @options[:listen] %> -c <%= @options[:maxconn] %>