The oxygen requirements of different retinal layers are of interest in understanding the vulnerability of the retina to hypoxic damage in retinal diseases with an ischemic component. We report the first measurements of retinal oxygen consumption in the visual streak of the rabbit retina, the region with the highest density of retinal neurons, and compare it to that in the less specialised region of retina underlying the vascularised portion of the rabbit retina. Oxygen sensitive microelectrodes were used to measure oxygen tension as a function of retinal depth in anaesthetized animals. Measurements were performed in the region of retina containing overlying retinal vessels and in the center of the visual streak. Established mathematical analyses of the intraretinal oxygen distribution were used to quantify the rate of oxygen consumption in the inner and outer retina, and the relative oxygen contributions from the choroidal and vitreal sides. Outer retinal oxygen consumption was higher in the visual streak than in the vascularised area (284 ± 20 (SE) vs 210 ± 23 nl O₂/min/cm², p = 0.026, n=10). However, inner retinal oxygen consumption in the visual streak was significantly lower than in the vascular area (57 ± 4.3 vs 146 ± 12 nl O₂/min/cm², p < 0.001). We conclude that despite the higher processing requirements of the inner retina in the visual streak it has a significantly lower oxygen consumption rate than the inner retina underlying the retinal vasculature. This suggests that the oxygen uptake of the inner retina is regulated to a large degree by the available oxygen supply, rather than the processing requirements of the inner retina alone.