diff --git a/binderhub/builder.py b/binderhub/builder.py
index 4527251720..d8d7d9ec69 100644
--- a/binderhub/builder.py
+++ b/binderhub/builder.py
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ async def get(self, provider_prefix, _unescaped_spec):
         if self.settings['use_registry']:
             for _ in range(3):
                 try:
-                    image_manifest = await self.registry.get_image_manifest(*'/'.join(image_name.split('/')[-2:]).split(':', 1))
+                    image_manifest = await self.registry.get_image_manifest(*'/'.join(image_name.split('/')[-2:]).rsplit(':', 1))
                     image_found = bool(image_manifest)
                     break
                 except HTTPClientError:
diff --git a/binderhub/health.py b/binderhub/health.py
index ed12088667..93d13871df 100644
--- a/binderhub/health.py
+++ b/binderhub/health.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ async def check_docker_registry(self):
         # don't care if the image actually exists or not
         image_name = self.settings["image_prefix"] + "some-image-name:12345"
         await registry.get_image_manifest(
-            *'/'.join(image_name.split('/')[-2:]).split(':', 1)
+            *'/'.join(image_name.split('/')[-2:]).rsplit(':', 1)
         )
         return True
 
diff --git a/binderhub/registry.py b/binderhub/registry.py
index a36f636d0d..0b8c37b340 100644
--- a/binderhub/registry.py
+++ b/binderhub/registry.py
@@ -187,6 +187,10 @@ def _default_password(self):
 
     async def get_image_manifest(self, image, tag):
         client = httpclient.AsyncHTTPClient()
+        if '/' in image:
+            # this handles the case of the image name including the registry
+            # e.g. localhost:32000/my-image
+            registry_prefix, image = image.split('/', 1)
         url = "{}/v2/{}/manifests/{}".format(self.url, image, tag)
         # first, get a token to perform the manifest request
         if self.token_url: