diff --git a/src/main/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporter.java b/src/main/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporter.java
index 6d4cdb2..ab74f5d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporter.java
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ public static enum StatType { COUNTER, TIMER, GAUGE }
 
     private boolean prependNewline = false;
     private boolean printVMMetrics = true;
+    private boolean shouldTranslateTimersToGauges = false; // Statsd rewrites timers with more info, causing a potential explosion in
+                                             // the number of metrics being pushed from statsd to graphite if you have a
+                                             // lot of timers or histograms. See: https://github.com/etsy/statsd/blob/master/docs/metric_types.md#timing
 
     public interface UDPSocketProvider {
         DatagramSocket get() throws Exception;
@@ -108,6 +111,14 @@ public void setPrintVMMetrics(boolean printVMMetrics) {
         this.printVMMetrics = printVMMetrics;
     }
 
+    public boolean isShouldTranslateTimersToGauges() {
+        return shouldTranslateTimersToGauges;
+    }
+
+    public void setShouldTranslateTimersToGauges(boolean shouldTranslateTimersToGauges) {
+        this.shouldTranslateTimersToGauges = shouldTranslateTimersToGauges;
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void run() {
         DatagramSocket socket = null;
@@ -303,7 +314,7 @@ protected void sendData(String name, String value, StatType statType) {
                 statTypeStr = "g";
                 break;
             case TIMER:
-                statTypeStr = "ms";
+                statTypeStr = shouldTranslateTimersToGauges ? "g" : "ms";
                 break;
         }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporterTest.java b/src/test/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporterTest.java
index e1906b6..fce7713 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporterTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/bealetech/metrics/reporting/StatsdReporterTest.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 package com.bealetech.metrics.reporting;
 
 import com.yammer.metrics.core.*;
-import com.yammer.metrics.reporting.AbstractPollingReporter;
 import com.yammer.metrics.stats.Snapshot;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -39,7 +38,7 @@
 public class StatsdReporterTest {
 
     protected final Clock clock = mock(Clock.class);
-    protected AbstractPollingReporter reporter;
+    protected StatsdReporter reporter;
     protected TestMetricsRegistry registry;
     protected DatagramPacket packet;
 
@@ -59,7 +58,7 @@ public void init() throws Exception {
         reporter = createReporter(registry, clock);
     }
 
-    protected AbstractPollingReporter createReporter(MetricsRegistry registry, Clock clock) throws Exception {
+    protected StatsdReporter createReporter(MetricsRegistry registry, Clock clock) throws Exception {
         final DatagramSocket socket = mock(DatagramSocket.class);
         final StatsdReporter.UDPSocketProvider provider = mock(StatsdReporter.UDPSocketProvider.class);
         when(provider.get()).thenReturn(socket);
@@ -75,12 +74,22 @@ protected AbstractPollingReporter createReporter(MetricsRegistry registry, Clock
     }
 
     protected <T extends Metric> void assertReporterOutput(Callable<T> action, String... expected) throws Exception {
+        assertReporterOutput(action, false, expected);
+    }
+
+    protected <T extends Metric> void assertReporterOutput(Callable<T> action, boolean shouldTranslateTimersToGauges, String... expected) throws Exception {
         // Invoke the callable to trigger (ie, mark()/inc()/etc) and return the metric
         final T metric = action.call();
         try {
             // Add the metric to the registry, run the reporter and flush the result
             registry.add(new MetricName(Object.class, "metric"), metric);
-            reporter.run();
+            boolean oldTimerTranslationConfig = reporter.isShouldTranslateTimersToGauges();
+            try {
+                reporter.setShouldTranslateTimersToGauges(shouldTranslateTimersToGauges);
+                reporter.run();
+            } finally {
+                reporter.setShouldTranslateTimersToGauges(oldTimerTranslationConfig);
+            }
 
             String packetData = new String(packet.getData());
             final String[] lines = packetData.split("\r?\n|\r");
@@ -125,6 +134,26 @@ public String[] expectedTimerResult() {
         };
     }
 
+    public String[] expectedTranslatedTimerResult() {
+        return new String[]{
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.count:1|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.meanRate:2.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.1MinuteRate:1.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.5MinuteRate:5.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.15MinuteRate:15.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.min:1.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.max:3.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.mean:2.00|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.stddev:1.50|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.median:0.50|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.75percentile:0.75|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.95percentile:0.95|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.98percentile:0.98|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.99percentile:0.99|g",
+                "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.999percentile:1.00|g"
+        };
+    }
+
     public String[] expectedMeterResult() {
         return new String[]{
                 "prefix.java.lang.Object.metric.count:1|g",
@@ -218,6 +247,19 @@ public Gauge<String> call() throws Exception {
                 expectedGaugeResult(value));
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public final void timerWithTranslatedOutput() throws Exception {
+        assertReporterOutput(
+                new Callable<Timer>() {
+                    @Override
+                    public Timer call() throws Exception {
+                        return createTimer();
+                    }
+                },
+                true,
+                expectedTranslatedTimerResult());
+    }
+
     static Counter createCounter(long count) throws Exception {
         final Counter mock = mock(Counter.class);
         when(mock.count()).thenReturn(count);