Abstract: A total of forty eight matured New Zealand rabbits with an average weight of 2.06±0.45 kg were used to evaluate the effect of delayed bleeding on carcass and organoleptic characteristics of rabbit meat. The rabbits were fed concentrate diet containing 19.11% Crude Protein (CP) and 2514.3 Kcal/kg Metabolizable Energy (ME) for a period of thirty five days. The rabbits were randomly assigned to four treatment groups in a completely randomized design. Each treatment was replicated thrice with each replicate consisting of four rabbits. Treatment one served as control where the 12 rabbits were bled immediately after stunning while treatments 2, 3 and 4 comprised of rabbits that were bled 5, 10 15 minutes after stunning. After proper bleeding, the rabbits were skinned, washed and eviscerated and cut into primal cuts. Samples for sensory evaluations were taken from the thigh muscle and the remaining carcasses were aged at 4°C for 24 and 72 hours. The result showed that the dressing percentage, chilled carcass weight and the pH were not affected (p>0.05) by delayed bleeding while the volume of blood drained decreased (p<0.05) as the period between stunning and bleeding increased. The drip loss and cooking loss increased as the time between stunning and bleeding increased while the Water Holding Capacity (WHC) decreased. The effect of delayed bleeding on shear force, WHC, drip loss and cooking loss became more pronounced with ageing. Apart from the colour and juiciness rating that significantly (p<0.05) decreased, the other eating qualities were not affected (p>0.05) by delayed bleedin