Is there a way to not loose a level when cloning?

[KillianHawkeye]

The polymorph sub-school states "Unless stated otherwise in the spell's description, the target of a polymorph spell takes on all the statistics and special abilities of an average member of the new form in place of its own" with a few exceptions that don't apply to ability scores.

That means you get the form's standard ability scores, of an average member of their species, not their racial ability modifiers.