I have fabric paint sticks but they were designed for cotton and other natural fabrics. If the rug has any synthetics in it, it may be impossible to color the black areas.

No, not fading or intentional. The rug was purchased in November 2017 during phase one of my home renovation. I tried a black sharpie and it made the color hair color brown, not black. I'm wondering if dying the cowhide hair black is an option.

yes. a pro could prob dye it back to black for you. they had to do it when the rug was made. from far away, you can't even tell. are you able to put down a coffee table or small ottoman in that spot? it may disguise it enough to where you don't notice it.

In the future, try buying a new scratching post for the cats. rub it w/cat nip and get them to favor that. cats love anything new and will rush to mark it, especially other animal scents. if you see them start to go for it, pull over the new post, (get some of those floor cardboard ones too) and put their paws on the things they're supposed to scratch. I've done it with mine and they don't touch anything else but their posts. you need to get a few of them, plus a cat tree.

Don't hate me...but I like how it looks with the natural colors showing through. It's still a great rug.

And yes, even the best-behaved cat is going to try that one out. It's so tempting. How did you get them to stop?

I was going to say the same as Fori. I like how it looks now. It looks natural..

Does it bug you tons or can you come to see it as a good thing?

First...I appreciate all the comments and recommendations! I can only move forward and try to remedy this problem. There is a coffee table on top of the rug and the discoloration (in all areas) is still very obvious. I notice it because I purchased the rug with black hair. My cats have a scratching tree that I rub with catnip, a few corrugated scratching boards here and there, clip their nails regularly, and use double sided sticky tape on furniture and rugs. The tape works well but they always find another place to pull apart. Does anyone know why the citrus peel and water would discolor the hair on the rug?

Well, lemon bleaches...

Lemon plus sunshine bleaches quickly- and sun always bleaches- just a matter of time.

Do you think citrus peel and water spray would bleach natural hair as on this rug? I just can't imagine hair fading that much with a spray of citrus peels and water.

I would certainly suck it up if there's nothing else to do about the discoloration. Just a small heads up...this rug cost over $1000 and take responsibility for the damage and all I want to do is see if it's possible to bring it back to its original color. I'm guilty and I feel horrible about it.

citrus acid is very acidic. I mean, it's used to degrease! perhaps it reacted to the black dye and lightened it. just have it professionally dyed back to the black and it should be fine.

I have a smaller hide rug like yours and my cats don't touch it.

Ok, thank you everyone! A heads up...I am responsible for this $1000+ problem and I'm wanting to make certain that aside from a possible fix from a pro, there is no other way to get the color back to the shade I bought it. If thats that case, I will move on and live with what I have.

Why bother? Seriously, the cats will still scratch it.

It's the reason I have my cats front claws removed. It saves me a ton of money and having to try and keep them from scratching up my furniture and rugs!

Please do not consider removing your cats claws. Any ethical vet will not even do this procedure, it is very painful for cats, especially as they age. When we choose to have pets we choose to sometimes deal with behaviors that are not always exactly as we would like but we owe it to them to realize they are, in fact, animals and have animal instincts.

How about the temporary root concealers that are sold for hiding gray hair between coloring? There are sprays and crayons. Although, if it were my rug I would just leave it. I actually think it looks better than all black.

The beard dye may be the way to go:

Cowhide can be stenciled to look like leopard, zebra or tiger. Almost anything that walks the Earth can be simulated on cowhide for use on the floor. "We use hair dye to get the exotic animal patterns we want. It's permanent color. You could use a high-power hose on it and the color wouldn't come off," says Frank Conn of Hollywood Love Rugs, whose sales of sheepskin and cowhide rugs have risen markedly in the last year.

Okay, the reason you cannot dye this is how are you going to rinse the dye out??

Do you have a pool? In my opinion, you will make it look worse by attempting any diy on this...

Dye runoff will bleed into the rest of the rug in addition to wherever you plan on rinsing it...

My vote is to leave it.

Am I having a case of deja vu? I swear I saw this posted some months ago.

Yes, I did post a message but I'm unable to locate it so here I am...again. I do recall people going "mommy" on me so I let it go for a while. I have been defeated by a cowhide rug... and my peers. Pathetic. Thank you all for your help and if I'm not tempted to test Just for Men Beard dye, I will live with it. Round 2 OVER! Thank you!

I have no idea how to help you but. . .I WANT THAT EXACT RUG! Where may I find it to purchase?

The spraying might have contributed, but you are certainly getting fading from the sun through that wall of glass. Make sure you rotate the rug and sofas every few months to get even fading. You might also want to have solar film installed on all that glass, it doesn't stop the fading but helps to slow it down.

There are likely plenty of materials at Michaels that can be used to carefully color the stripe to black. Even black India Ink, but it should be applied with a small brush and you should count on the liquid 'bleeding' so do it in stages until you can see exactly how to confine it to the location you would like colors. I understand that chalk paint can also be used on fabric so you might want to consider that if it can be thinned so it doesn't create a texture on your strips.

As for this declawing a cat, I know of no ethical vet who will even do that procedure anymore. If you don't want a cat to scratch then don't get a cat. BTW their nailed can be trimmed like any animal to minimize damage, but it is their instinct to scratch.

Years ago vets used to agree to a procedure so that dogs couldn't bark but they stopped that too.

As a veterinary technician I agree with Beth and others above. Our hospital won't declaw cats. You can buy a product called Soft Paws which are individual soft plastic "covers" that glue onto each claw. They need to be replaced as the cat's claws grow so they aren't terribly convenient, but anything is better than declawing which is terribly painful for the cat. It is a hideous and barbaric practice. Soft Paws or a good aim with a water bottle when you catch them. Regarding the rug, I don't mind the color difference and think messing around with dyeing it may turn into a nightmare with bleeding, permanency, etc. Also, black dye is a mixture of other colors so it can have a greenish or bluish cast.

I totally don't get how this post turned to the question of cat declawing....Was that even a question???

So the thing I'd worry about with dying it on the floor is that if it's not color fast, someone will track dye all over the rest of the the rug AND the house.

Pennydesign, Bev commented that "that's the reason she had her cat declawed. saves her tons of money by not having her furniture and rugs scratched". The OP stated that her cat claws her rug, which is why she used the spray that ended up bleaching out the black. So, I replied w/my retort about Bev's comment, mentioning doing other things so you don't have to mutilate your cats paws, merely so you can have nice things. I guess it got the ball rolling.

as for the rug, for crying out loud, take it to a pro who will dye it. if you want to color it with a Sharpie, or India Ink, or hair dye, then try a small spot and see if it works. It's not brain surgery. Just don't cut off your cats first digits in order to save the rug.

One more thing...this is the second time I tried to reach out for help regarding this cowhide rug. It is not and never was about my cats or else I wouldn't be posting here, right? If it were about the cats I would be on a cat forum asking about the best way to get rid of cats. A thank you to those who stayed on track and was focused on my problem.

When I was young and all of us teens wanted sun bleached hair, we'd put lemon juice on it and sit in the sun to lighten it, and it did. And that was on natural, undyed hair. Your cowhide strips were certainly dyed to make the color uniform before they sewed it and the lemon juice just hastened the fading.

It's a gorgeous rug and looks different but still wonderful, even with the faded areas - they do look intentional. I hope you find a solution for fixing it, or learn to love it as it is.

I'm 3 years late but all hair dye will dye all hair. A cows hair isn't that much different than ours. If you can rinse it out with a hose safely so the dye wont linger on any natural stone or wood, and you have a place to dry it fully, the beard dye would be great!

Hair color from the drugstore maybe ?

Did you find a way to dye the striped areas? I'm wanting to touch up a hide myself so curious if anyone found a solution 🤔

I hope she'll post if she found a solution. If it were me, I'd do as Pal suggested and use a sharpie. They are easy to control, permanent and no rinsing needed.

Yes, but they can have a blue hue though. I have used them and it has been blueish on some fabrics.

I would hope the brown base below the marker would prevent any bluish cast.