A method of processing animal pelts by tumbling said pelts by means of an apparatus comprising a drum, including one or more treatment compartments (10, 30, 50) and one or more separation compartments (20, 40, 60) separated by a partition wall (16, 26, 36), said method comprising the steps of: - loading one or more pelts into a treatment compartment (10, 50) of said drum, - performing a first and a second processing of said pelts in said drum by using a treatment cycle twice before unloading said pelts from the drum, the method including after the first processing by means of said treatment cycle unloading said pelts from said separation compartment (20, 60) of the drum through an outlet (34, 54) in said partition wall (26, 36) and into a treatment compartment (30, 50) of said drum, performing the second processing of said pelts in said drum by means of said treatment cycle, and - unloading said one or more pelts from said drum after the second processing, whereby, in case of a drum with a single treatment compartment and a single separation compartment, said first and second processing takes place in the same treatment and separation compartments (50, 60) by reversing the rotation direction of said drum, wherein said treatment cycle comprises the steps of: - tumbling said one or more pelts in said treatment compartment (10, 30, 50) together with a liquid absorbing granular material such as sawdust, - automatically unloading said pelts and said granular material from said treatment compartment through an outlet (24, 44, 54) of said partition wall (16, 36), and into said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) of said drum, and - tumbling said one or more pelts in said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) so as to separate said granular material from said pelts in said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) by means of perforations in a wall (21, 41, 61) forming said separation compartment (20, 40, 60), wherein at least one of said compartments (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60), comprises one or more fixed and inclining transportation guides extending from an inner surface of a wall (3, 21, 41, 61) of at least one of said compartments, said fixed transportation guides inducing a movement of the content of the said at least one compartment in the longitudinal direction of the drum during rotation of the drum, and wherein said automatic unloading is achieved due to the configuration of said partition walls (16, 26, 36) and the inclining transportation guides. - loading one or more pelts into a treatment compartment (10, 50) of said drum, - performing a first and a second processing of said pelts in said drum by using a treatment cycle twice before unloading said pelts from the drum, - unloading said one or more pelts from said drum after the second processing, - tumbling said one or more pelts in said treatment compartment (10, 30, 50) together with a liquid absorbing granular material such as sawdust, - automatically unloading said pelts and said granular material from said treatment compartment through an outlet (24, 44, 54) of said partition wall (16, 36), and into said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) of said drum, and - tumbling said one or more pelts in said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) so as to separate said granular material from said pelts in said separation compartment (20, 40, 60) by means of perforations in a wall (21, 41, 61) forming said separation compartment (20, 40, 60),