diff --git a/src/_pylibmcmodule.c b/src/_pylibmcmodule.c
index 5324d1d..70c18cb 100644
--- a/src/_pylibmcmodule.c
+++ b/src/_pylibmcmodule.c
@@ -600,6 +600,13 @@ static PyObject *_PylibMC_parse_memcached_value(PylibMC_Client *self,
     }
 #endif
 
+#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
+	/* make sure we don't pass a null pointer to _PylibMC_deserialize_native */
+    if (value == NULL) {
+        value = "";
+    }
+#endif
+
     if (self->native_deserialization) {
         retval = _PylibMC_deserialize_native(self, NULL, value, size, flags);
     } else {
