diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py b/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
index b61f183b767b..633f69b22d8b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
@@ -1288,6 +1288,7 @@ def tk_window_focus():
 
 default_test_modules = [
     'matplotlib.tests.test_agg',
+    'matplotlib.tests.test_animation',
     'matplotlib.tests.test_arrow_patches',
     'matplotlib.tests.test_artist',
     'matplotlib.tests.test_axes',
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
index 9854ca2527f6..6cb593f00614 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -1000,7 +1000,8 @@ def __init__(self, fig, func, frames=None, init_func=None, fargs=None,
             self._iter_gen = frames
         elif iterable(frames):
             self._iter_gen = lambda: iter(frames)
-            self.save_count = len(frames)
+            if hasattr(frames, '__len__'):
+                self.save_count = len(frames)
         else:
             self._iter_gen = lambda: xrange(frames).__iter__()
             self.save_count = frames
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
index 04fb65291b5b..2f5495643c03 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
@@ -52,6 +52,25 @@ def animate(i):
     anim.save(F.name, fps=30, writer=writer)
 
 
+@cleanup
+def test_no_length_frames():
+    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+    line, = ax.plot([], [])
+
+    def init():
+        line.set_data([], [])
+        return line,
+
+    def animate(i):
+        x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
+        y = np.sin(x + i)
+        line.set_data(x, y)
+        return line,
+
+    anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, init_func=init,
+                                   frames=iter(range(5)))
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     import nose
     nose.runmodule(argv=['-s', '--with-doctest'], exit=False)