wire strength depends entirely on how thick (gage) the wire is and what it is made out of, if you have the same wire, welded into a 1x 1/2 and a 1/2x1/2, the smaller, half by half will be the more rigid of the two. However with smaller mesh I have found that I have a much harder time with pellets sticking to the floor and not dropping though.
IF you are using hardware cloth (20+ gage) you are going to kill the poor rabbits feet.