diff --git a/r2/r2/controllers/api.py b/r2/r2/controllers/api.py
index bc24714af..94cb92f0e 100755
--- a/r2/r2/controllers/api.py
+++ b/r2/r2/controllers/api.py
@@ -1463,8 +1463,8 @@ class ApiController(RedditController, OAuth2ResourceController):
                    type = VOneOf('type', ('public', 'private', 'restricted', 'archived')),
                    link_type = VOneOf('link_type', ('any', 'link', 'self')),
                    wikimode = VOneOf('wikimode', ('disabled', 'modonly', 'anyone')),
-                   wiki_edit_karma = VInt("wiki_edit_karma", coerce=False, min=0),
-                   wiki_edit_age = VInt("wiki_edit_age", coerce=False, min=0),
+                   wiki_edit_karma = VInt("wiki_edit_karma", coerce=False, num_default=0, min=0),
+                   wiki_edit_age = VInt("wiki_edit_age", coerce=False, num_default=0, min=0),
                    ip = ValidIP(),
                    sponsor_text =VLength('sponsorship-text', max_length = 500),
                    sponsor_name =VLength('sponsorship-name', max_length = 64),
diff --git a/r2/r2/controllers/validator/validator.py b/r2/r2/controllers/validator/validator.py
index 7dba2b343..0d20fc7fa 100644
--- a/r2/r2/controllers/validator/validator.py
+++ b/r2/r2/controllers/validator/validator.py
@@ -1157,11 +1157,13 @@ class VBoolean(Validator):
 
 class VNumber(Validator):
     def __init__(self, param, min=None, max=None, coerce = True,
-                 error = errors.BAD_NUMBER, *a, **kw):
+                 error=errors.BAD_NUMBER, num_default=None,
+                 *a, **kw):
         self.min = self.cast(min) if min is not None else None
         self.max = self.cast(max) if max is not None else None
         self.coerce = coerce
         self.error = error
+        self.num_default = num_default
         Validator.__init__(self, param, *a, **kw)
 
     def cast(self, val):
@@ -1169,7 +1171,7 @@ class VNumber(Validator):
 
     def run(self, val):
         if not val:
-            return
+            return self.num_default
         try:
             val = self.cast(val)
             if self.min is not None and val < self.min: