diff --git a/lib/connection.js b/lib/connection.js
index ffd7d9c..dfae389 100644
--- a/lib/connection.js
+++ b/lib/connection.js
@@ -116,8 +116,8 @@ p.startup = function(config) {
     .addCString(config.user)
     .addCString('database')
     .addCString(config.database)
-    .addCString('options')
-    .addCString("--client_encoding='utf-8'")
+    .addCString('client_encoding')
+    .addCString("'utf-8'")
     .addCString('').flush();
   //this message is sent without a code