diff --git a/django/core/cache/__init__.py b/django/core/cache/__init__.py
index 93e7adb76e..23a61ef859 100644
--- a/django/core/cache/__init__.py
+++ b/django/core/cache/__init__.py
@@ -31,7 +31,12 @@ BACKENDS = {
     'dummy': 'dummy',
 }
 
-def get_cache(backend_uri):
+def parse_backend_uri(backend_uri):
+    """
+    Converts the "backend_uri" into a cache scheme ('db', 'memcached', etc), a
+    host and any extra params that are required for the backend. Returns a
+    (scheme, host, params) tuple.
+    """
     if backend_uri.find(':') == -1:
         raise InvalidCacheBackendError, "Backend URI must start with scheme://"
     scheme, rest = backend_uri.split(':', 1)
@@ -48,6 +53,10 @@ def get_cache(backend_uri):
     if host.endswith('/'):
         host = host[:-1]
 
+    return scheme, host, params
+
+def get_cache(backend_uri):
+    scheme, host, params = parse_backend_uri(backend_uri)
     if scheme in BACKENDS:
         module = __import__('django.core.cache.backends.%s' % BACKENDS[scheme], {}, {}, [''])
     else:
diff --git a/django/db/backends/creation.py b/django/db/backends/creation.py
index aba41fb3f9..1bdce1ee59 100644
--- a/django/db/backends/creation.py
+++ b/django/db/backends/creation.py
@@ -315,7 +315,8 @@ class BaseDatabaseCreation(object):
         call_command('syncdb', verbosity=verbosity, interactive=False)
 
         if settings.CACHE_BACKEND.startswith('db://'):
-            cache_name = settings.CACHE_BACKEND[len('db://'):]
+            from django.core.cache import parse_backend_uri
+            _, cache_name, _ = parse_backend_uri(settings.CACHE_BACKEND)
             call_command('createcachetable', cache_name)
 
         # Get a cursor (even though we don't need one yet). This has