diff --git a/components/sceneutil/riggeometry.cpp b/components/sceneutil/riggeometry.cpp
index 0006c947e2..88b907fafa 100644
--- a/components/sceneutil/riggeometry.cpp
+++ b/components/sceneutil/riggeometry.cpp
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ RigGeometry::RigGeometry(const RigGeometry &copy, const osg::CopyOp &copyop)
     , mSkeleton(NULL)
     , mInfluenceMap(copy.mInfluenceMap)
     , mLastFrameNumber(0)
-    , mBoundsFirstFrame(copy.mBoundsFirstFrame)
+    , mBoundsFirstFrame(true)
 {
     setSourceGeometry(copy.mSourceGeometry);
 }
@@ -211,6 +211,8 @@ void RigGeometry::update(osg::NodeVisitor* nv)
 {
     if (!mSkeleton)
     {
+        std::cerr << "RigGeometry rendering with no skeleton, should have been initialized by UpdateVisitor" << std::endl;
+        // try to recover anyway, though rendering is likely to be incorrect.
         if (!initFromParentSkeleton(nv))
             return;
     }
diff --git a/components/sceneutil/skeleton.cpp b/components/sceneutil/skeleton.cpp
index d66131b4e9..83f7d65378 100644
--- a/components/sceneutil/skeleton.cpp
+++ b/components/sceneutil/skeleton.cpp
@@ -135,7 +135,10 @@ bool Skeleton::getActive() const
 
 void Skeleton::traverse(osg::NodeVisitor& nv)
 {
-    if (!mActive && nv.getVisitorType() == osg::NodeVisitor::UPDATE_VISITOR && mLastFrameNumber != 0)
+    if (!getActive() && nv.getVisitorType() == osg::NodeVisitor::UPDATE_VISITOR
+            // need to process at least 2 frames before shutting off update, since we need to have both frame-alternating RigGeometries initialized
+            // this would be more naturally handled if the double-buffering was implemented in RigGeometry itself rather than in a FrameSwitch decorator node
+            && mLastFrameNumber != 0 && mLastFrameNumber+2 <= nv.getTraversalNumber())
         return;
     osg::Group::traverse(nv);
 }