diff -Nru a/src/t4k_loaders.c b/src/t4k_loaders.c
--- a/src/t4k_loaders.c	2019-08-11 22:35:51.961279487 -0400
+++ b/src/t4k_loaders.c	2019-08-11 22:50:41.074888647 -0400
@@ -213,16 +213,15 @@
   new_sprite = malloc(sizeof(sprite));
   new_sprite->default_img = render_svg_from_handle(file_handle, width, height, "#default");
 
-  /* get number of frames from description */
-  sscanf(rsvg_handle_get_desc(file_handle), "%d", &new_sprite->num_frames);
-  DEBUGMSG(debug_loaders, "load_svg_sprite(): loading %d frames\n", new_sprite->num_frames);
-
-  for(i = 0; i < new_sprite->num_frames; i++)
-  {
-    sprintf(lay_name, "#frame%d", i);
-    new_sprite->frame[i] = render_svg_from_handle(file_handle, width, height, lay_name);
+  /* get number of frames directly. End when #frame<num> doesn't exist */
+  new_sprite->num_frames = 0;
+  while(1) {
+      sprintf(lay_name, "#frame%d", new_sprite->num_frames);
+      if ( ! (rsvg_handle_has_sub(file_handle, lay_name)) ) break;
+      new_sprite->frame[new_sprite->num_frames] = render_svg_from_handle(file_handle, width, height, lay_name);
+      new_sprite->num_frames++;
   }
-
+  
   g_object_unref(file_handle);
   rsvg_term();