diff --git a/cmd/realm/main.go b/cmd/realm/main.go
index b662671..1ea5270 100644
--- a/cmd/realm/main.go
+++ b/cmd/realm/main.go
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 var args struct {
-	Zones []string `arg:"--zone,positional,help:DNS zone files to serve from this server"`
-	Bind  string   `arg:"help:[<host>]:<port> to bind too"`
+	Zones  []string `arg:"--zone,positional,help:DNS zone files to serve from this server"`
+	Bind   string   `arg:"help:[<host>]:<port> to bind too"`
+	StatsD string   `arg:"--statsd,help:<host>:<port> to send StatsD metrics to"`
 }
 
 func main() {
@@ -40,6 +41,12 @@ func main() {
 
 	// Create and start the server
 	log.Printf("starting the server on \"%s\"\n", args.Bind)
-	var server *realm.Server = realm.NewServer(args.Bind, registry)
+	var server *realm.Server
+	var err error
+	server, err = realm.NewServer(args.Bind, registry, args.StatsD)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
 	log.Fatal(server.ListenAndServe())
 }
diff --git a/server.go b/server.go
index 2b7a647..08f433a 100644
--- a/server.go
+++ b/server.go
@@ -1,15 +1,23 @@
 package realm
 
-import "github.com/miekg/dns"
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/DataDog/datadog-go/statsd"
+	"github.com/miekg/dns"
+)
 
 // A Server listens for DNS requests over UDP and responds with answers from the provided Zone.
 type Server struct {
 	server   *dns.Server
 	registry *Registry
+	statsd   *statsd.Client
 }
 
 // NewServer returns a new initialized *Server that will bind to listen and will look up answers from zone.
-func NewServer(listen string, registry *Registry) *Server {
+func NewServer(listen string, registry *Registry, statsdHost string) (*Server, error) {
+	var err error
 	var s *Server
 	s = &Server{registry: registry}
 	s.server = &dns.Server{
@@ -17,7 +25,14 @@ func NewServer(listen string, registry *Registry) *Server {
 		Net:     "udp",
 		Handler: s,
 	}
-	return s
+	if statsdHost != "" {
+		s.statsd, err = statsd.New(statsdHost)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		s.statsd.Namespace = "realm."
+	}
+	return s, err
 }
 
 // ListenAndServe will start the nameserver on the configured address.
@@ -28,6 +43,12 @@ func (s *Server) ListenAndServe() error {
 // ServeDNS will be called for every DNS request to this server.
 // It will attempt to provide answers to all questions from the configured zone.
 func (s *Server) ServeDNS(w dns.ResponseWriter, request *dns.Msg) {
+	// Capture starting time for measuring message response time
+	var start float64
+	var end float64
+	var elapsed float64
+	start = float64(time.Now().Unix()) * 1000.0
+
 	// Setup the default response
 	var response *dns.Msg
 	response = &dns.Msg{}
@@ -36,11 +57,45 @@ func (s *Server) ServeDNS(w dns.ResponseWriter, request *dns.Msg) {
 
 	// Lookup answers to any of the questions
 	for _, question := range request.Question {
+		// Capture starting time for measuring lookup
+		var lookupStart float64
+		var lookupEnd float64
+		var lookupElapsed float64
+		lookupStart = float64(time.Now().Unix()) * 1000.0
+
+		// Perform lookup for this question
 		var records []dns.RR
 		records = s.registry.Lookup(question.Name, question.Qtype, question.Qclass)
+
+		// Capture ending and elapsed time
+		lookupEnd = float64(time.Now().Unix()) * 1000.0
+		lookupElapsed = lookupEnd - lookupStart
+
+		// Append results to the response
 		response.Answer = append(response.Answer, records...)
+
+		// If StatsD is enabled, record some metrics
+		if s.statsd != nil {
+			s.statsd.TimeInMilliseconds("lookup.time", lookupElapsed, nil, 1)
+			s.statsd.Histogram("lookup.answer", float64(len(records)), nil, 1)
+
+			var tags []string
+			tags = []string{
+				fmt.Sprintf("name:%s", question.Name),
+				fmt.Sprintf("qtype:%s", dns.TypeToString[question.Qtype]),
+				fmt.Sprintf("qclass:%s", dns.ClassToString[question.Qclass]),
+			}
+			s.statsd.Count("request.question", 1, tags, 1)
+		}
 	}
 
 	// Respond to the request
 	w.WriteMsg(response)
+
+	// Record any ending metrics
+	end = float64(time.Now().Unix()) * 1000.0
+	elapsed = end - start
+	if s.statsd != nil {
+		s.statsd.TimeInMilliseconds("request.time", elapsed, nil, 1)
+	}
 }